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LaChaun Banks ’10

LaChaun Banks

In 2010, LaChaun Banks received a BA in in International Studies, now the Curriculum in Global Studies, with a concentration in global economics, trade, and development. LaChaun says that being a Global Studies major helped to prepare her for her current role as the Associate Director for NCGrowth, a university center which provides assistance to businesses and governments on economic development and entrepreneurship projects.

LaChaun writes:

“The Global Studies program prepared me for my current role in Economic Development more than I could have imagined. My major, then called International Studies at the time, allowed me to concentrate in global economics, trade and development. I didn’t realize how useful that would be in economic development policy in this state, and current relevant research that I use daily. I am able to relate things I learned in class about rural development in South East Asia to my work in rural development in Beaufort County.

Studying abroad in Hong Kong for a summer with this major really prepared me to be able to accept ambiguity and thrive in situations that were new to me, or that I didn’t know how to handle immediately.

I am grateful for the program, which taught me so much about globalization, different cultures, how people interact, and how policy affects people’s lives. I enjoyed learning about diasporas, and being pushed to take a foreign language beyond just 3 semesters (to this day I can still speak, read and write Japanese, which I attribute to the fact that I took this language my entire undergrad career, versus the first couple of years).

What this major did was allow me to see that rural development can be duplicated across the world, and that people are very similar (and behave similarly) whether they are in the very rural county of Bertie, NC or in a rural town in Burma. I loved that I could take this major into many different professions – business, non-profits, policy, public service, politics, finance, and a range of other things I could do with a Global Studies major.”