{"id":1722,"date":"2021-10-22T11:46:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/?p=1722"},"modified":"2022-10-27T13:50:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:50:56","slug":"the-places-we-call-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/2021\/10\/the-places-we-call-home\/","title":{"rendered":"The Places We Call Home: Julia Hobbs (Class of ’05) on Hillbrook, Hong Kong, and DEI at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What if we imagined the whole population of the world as a village of just 100 people? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This question, from David J. Smith\u2019s \u201cIf the World Were a Village,\u201d would change twelve-year-old Julia Hobbs\u2019 life\u2014though as a Hillbrook 6th grader, she didn\u2019t know it yet. \u201cIt shrank the world into a hundred people\u2014what languages they spoke, their nationalities, what they ate for dinner. And the language page really got me.\u201d With all of the world\u2019s conversations reduced to 100 households, she learned, nine people would speak English, seven would speak Spanish\u2014and twenty-one people would speak a dialect of Chinese, sixteen of which would be in Mandarin. Julia was taking Spanish at Hillbrook at the time, and the fictional village in the story left a significant impression on her keen and growing mind: one-fifth of the world\u2019s population was speaking a language she didn\u2019t know. \u201cSo I started taking Mandarin classes on the weekends\u2014it seemed very reasonable to start taking Mandarin at age 12. And that curiosity of other cultures, other languages, and how other people operate really fueled me over the next eight years in high school and college.\u201d Julia would spend her formative years studying abroad, learning Mandarin and Arabic, and traveling the world as much as she could. \u201cI grew up in a wonderful community\u2014that is, California, and Hillbrook\u2014but I just didn’t have a sense of what things looked like anywhere else. And so I went to go find out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That unflagging curiosity and desire to discover the world have been recurring themes in Julia\u2019s life\u2014a love of adventure and a faith in gut feelings that buoyed her through moments of triumph and challenge. Her first introduction to the latter arrived with college admissions\u2014faced with the unexpected prospect of not attending her first-choice, she took it as a bend in the road instead of a setback. Johns Hopkins University, she discovered, was where she was meant to be all along. \u201cIt was just the best thing in my life,\u201d she says. \u201cI was super intellectually stimulated, and the people were really interesting. It was probably a much better experience than I would have had at the [other] university I applied to!\u201d A lifelong planner and organizer, the experience taught Julia that life never changes our path without bringing unexpected gifts. \u201cI realized that I can’t be living in the now and only thinking about what might get me to four years from now. And so I started having these unexpected experiences\u2014when you sort of let go of control a little bit and trust your gut a little bit more, great things can happen. Sometimes plans don\u2019t work out, but in the most beautiful way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you sort of let go of control a little bit and trust your gut a little bit more, great things can happen. Sometimes plans don\u2019t work out, but in the most beautiful way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through her Mandarin professor at Johns Hopkins, she discovered an extraordinary job opening: helping to build a brand-new college in Hong Kong. \u201cI could move to New York and work in banking, energy, and oil investments\u2014or I could just spend a year helping create a college in a new country.\u201d Julia found herself faced with the quintessential young person\u2019s dilemma: head over heart, a safe decision against an unknown outcome. \u201cI thought, if not now, when? <\/em>Going to New York and working in investment banking would have been perfectly fine\u2014I probably would have had a lovely time gallivanting around that city. But my gut was telling me to go have an adventure.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That adventure, originally meant to last twelve months, would become a seven-year residency as she discovered new opportunities and fell in love with Hong Kong\u2019s singular culture, people, and city life. \u201cIt can be exhausting living abroad, don\u2019t get me wrong,\u201d she says. \u201cHong Kong as a city is a sensory overload. But it\u2019s just an incredible place.\u201d Learning how to live in a new country, she found, is a dance between learning new ways of being while subconsciously searching for familiar ones. \u201cI was relatively worldly, or so I thought\u2014I\u2019d studied abroad, and I’d traveled quite a bit. But nothing made me feel more American than living in Hong Kong.\u201d She recalls going to a local meat market in search of pork to make carnitas<\/em>. \u201cI took a printout of a pig to show what piece of pork I wanted, and sort of pointed at the parts of the picture. And it didn’t translate\u2014I have no idea what kind of pork I got! And so you kind of just learn to roll with things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the months unfolded, Julia discovered that cultural connection extends far beyond language or curiosity\u2014it finds deeper roots with giving and personal time. \u201cI thought I would only be in Hong Kong for a year. I had never seen it as home<\/em>,\u201d she says. But as a new job opportunity added another year to her timeline, something shifted internally. \u201cI was at the airport in Boston, and I suddenly thought, I really need to start interacting with this city more. I want to give back to this community that gave me a lot last year.<\/em>\u201d Over the next six years, she joined a flag football team, eventually becoming president of Hong Kong\u2019s American Football League; she cofounded a nonprofit for college-aged kids, and discovered new friends (including one of her former teachers from Hillbrook, Jodi Kittle). Bit by bit, the city and people opened to her in new, meaningful ways. \u201cIt was a magical shift.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A career with a focus on DEI was not born out of a specific desire or goal, but by Julia\u2019s commitment to listening to her gut when it counted\u2014a decision that has continued to evolve with her over the years. (\u201cI don\u2019t mean to say that my career path hasn\u2019t been deliberate,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I’ve really started to believe that if I see an opportunity that I think is really interesting, that I think is going to challenge me, keep me engaged, and introduce me to great people, that’s going to get me where I want to be in ten years anyway.\u201d) For many young people forging a career path in a changing world, finding mission-aligned companies has become a key focus. A week after her return to the United States, Julia\u2019s own DEI journey entered a challenging, eye-opening chapter in the wake of George Floyd\u2019s murder. \u201cI spent my last summer before my MBA program joining groups for social justice, reading a lot of books, and watching a lot of videos. The more I learned, the more horrified I became\u2014one, that I didn’t know about all of this beforehand, and two, that I’d never spent my time fighting against the system and supporting my friends. I grew up with the idea of being colorblind<\/em>\u2014 an idea that\u2019s actually way more harmful.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As both her education and job search evolved in response to the changing times, she found herself casting a critical eye at companies whose commitment to DEI seemed to begin and end with a public statement. Campus recruiting events provided a micro-study of company values in action: \u201cI looked for companies that looked like they celebrated the people as they were. You have to look at who<\/em> a company is putting in front of you. Is it a diverse group? Are they saying interesting things? Does it sound like they had talking points, or did they sound like they\u2019re speaking authentically about their own experiences?\u201d An MBA leadership class \u201cBeyond Diversity: the Fundamentals of Inclusive Leadership\u201d at Kellogg provided further inspiration, tackling DEI at a managerial level. Julia learned that a key mistake companies make is an over-focus on recruiting, without a plan to support the sudden influx of new experiences, histories, and culture. \u201cMy professor always said, diversity is about counting heads, and inclusivity is about making heads count.<\/em> Bringing in under-represented groups is great, but not if the business isn\u2019t remotely prepared to mentor or support them\u2014gender-wise, race-wise, socioeconomically. Diversity can\u2019t just be about hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I looked for companies that looked like they celebrated the people as they were. You have to look at WHO a company is putting in front of you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Julia\u2019s search led her to Bain & Company, a \u201cBig Three\u201d consulting firm connected to her MBA program at Kellogg. \u201cThe more I talked with people about Bain\u2019s consulting work in DEI, the more I realized how cool it was\u2014you get to go into the largest companies in the world and change them, faster than you would ever be able to change them from the inside. People at Bain have the ears of Fortune 100 CEOs, and they’re helping them arrive at what they need to be thinking about. And I love that. And then on top of that, you’re surrounded by people who are incredibly smart, incredibly driven, and super curious. At every moment my gut was telling me that this was going to be a lot of work, but it was going to be a lot of fun.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her first week was a challenging one, it was a well-timed case study of great company values in action: finding herself on a team that wasn\u2019t a good fit, Julia asked a mentor for help; instead of dismissing her concerns, the company did something radical: they thanked her sincerely for being honest\u2014and moved her to a team that suited her strengths and her real, authentic self. \u201cI hadn’t said, hey, put me on a new team.<\/em> I had just let them know that I was struggling,\u201d she says. \u201cBut Bain appreciates that kind of honesty, because they know that happy people do better work.\u201d It was a new version of the world-as-a-village\u2014a person-sized example of the life-changing, career-shaping power of inclusivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Bain, Julia\u2019s team helps companies discover ways to create and maintain a healthy workplace culture\u2014a challenge within a challenge, as it requires company leaders to engage in new or unfamiliar ways. \u201cThe trajectory we’re on is going to be a long one, and it’s going to require shocks to the system that some people may never be comfortable with. Companies come to us and say, we need help with our diversity programs<\/em>, which of course is great. But usually the problem is far more pervasive than they realize. It’s not just looking out and seeing a lot of white faces\u2014there\u2019s usually something entrenched in the way that you work that\u2019s not diverse or equitable. And only companies that are really open to hearing that are the ones that are going to succeed.\u201d Additionally, the employers who lean into DEI initiatives are in a better position to attract the incoming workforce: Gen-Z. \u201cThey are not to be trifled with,\u201d Julia says firmly. \u201cThey won\u2019t stand for less, and companies should be prepared for that. We’re handing them a world that is not okay, and finally people are starting to acknowledge it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Though the miles, years, and adventures, Julia Hobbs’ joyful Hillbrook roots remain.<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Through the years and miles and adventures, Julia\u2019s Hillbrook roots remain a source of joy. \u201cThat campus is magical. Hillbrook really stays with you,\u201d she says. On a visit to campus with Head of School Mark Silver in early 2021, she recalled moments and lessons from her eight years as a Hillbrook student\u2014especially her creative projects, including a claymation film (\u201cit was awful!\u201d she says with a laugh), screen printing, woodshop projects, and a pottery wheel class, a practice she still loves as an adult. \u201cWhen I go back to California, I call up two or three people that were in my Hillbrook class, and we sit outside in the glorious California sunshine, and just talk for hours. I mean, everything about Hillbrook was just really wonderful. We had a really great class, and the teachers were just so much fun. They were so interesting and kind, and they just rolled with us on whatever we wanted to learn.\u201d She recalled getting to act out the Revolutionary War in her fifth grade history class with Ms. Donsker: \u201cI share a birthday with George Washington, and as the somewhat bossy little lady I was, I demanded<\/em> to be George.\u201d Other classmates were recruited to play King George III and Paul Revere, and \u201cwe all dressed up one day and acted out history, with no script or anything. It was so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of learning to trust her gut and its uncanny reaches of knowledge, Julia emphasized how much young people really can have faith in themselves\u2014usually more than they realize at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s about trusting the village that raised you, the literal village, the Hillbrook village, your family. There are just so many fewer limitations for kids today\u2014and I didn’t even know I was limited! I didn’t feel limited. Hillbrook didn\u2019t limit me by any means. But it makes me so excited seeing that learning can look really different than when I grew up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have the ability to change other people’s lives also for the better. Be kind to other people and remember that if you can\u2019t change the world, you can change someone’s<\/em> world, and it counts just as much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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