Medi Woldemichael

It wasn’t easy for business major Medi Woldemichael to leave home in Ethiopia and start college nearly 7,000 miles away at UMass Lowell.

“My first year was a culture shock,” she says. “I was too shy to speak in my classes because I thought people would make fun of my accent.”

Woldemichael’s mindset shifted during her sophomore year. Working as an Orientation Leader, she helped first-year and transfer students get acclimated to campus.

“I learned how they felt being on their own and away from their family for the first time, and I realized it wasn’t just me as an international student feeling those things, it’s everyone,” she says.

Now, as she prepares to complete her undergraduate degree in just three years, Woldemichael doesn’t want to leave.

“I’m sad that I’m graduating early and missing out on that fourth year,” says Woldemichael, whose concentrations are in international business and finance. 

But she has business to tend to back home in Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis Ababa — specifically, her family’s coffee export business, Seka.

“It’s a big business within our country, but my plan is to expand it internationally,” says Woldemichael, whose father, Seifu, started the business about 15 years ago and runs it with her mother, Azev.

“I wanted to help with the business when I was growing up, but they wanted me to focus on my education,” she says. “I want to make them proud because they worked hard to put me through school.”

Woldemichael chose UML because of its affordability and proximity to Boston, where her sister, Bezawit, lived. She originally enrolled as a public health major before switching to business.

Helping students as an Orientation Leader inspired Woldemichael to become a Well-being Leader for the Manning School of Business.

“A lot of students are afraid to ask for help or don’t know about the resources that the university offers,” she says. “As Well-being Leaders, we’re not therapists, but we can help them navigate.”

As a business student, Woldemichael “never imagined” she would have the opportunity to travel to student conferences in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

“My roommates ask me, ‘How are you getting to go to all these places?’” she says. “You just have to get involved, put yourself out there and talk to people.”

One of Woldemichael’s favorite courses has been Internship in Entrepreneurship, in which students help local businesses through the student-run venture Mill City Consulting — while earning a $1,000 scholarship.

“I’m very thankful for the opportunities that UMass Lowell and the Manning School have given me,” she says. “I didn’t just show up in college; I showed out with my leadership.”