“WRONG” MIAMI, RIGHT SCHOOL

Four years ago, when she was in high school in Vietnam, Valerie Do began looking for a college to attend, and set her sights on the United States . “Study abroad in America has been my dream ever since I was a kid,” she said “A lot of my Vietnamese friends think that the US is just California or Texas, but I think that the US is more than that . And I thought ‘If I go, I will be able to prove that they were wrong,’ and I was right . ”

“It’s definitely been an adjustment . When I first came here, just like every other international student, I experienced a lot of difficulties, such as language barriers, culture shocks, having no friends But I tried to put myself out there as a domestic student freshman coming into college, not an international student,” Valerie said . “Because the reason why I’m here studying abroad is not just for a degree from a U S college . It’s also the experience that I cannot have elsewhere else in the world So I just had to put myself in the same playing field as every other student here . ”

But Valerie admits that she didn’t quite understand just where in America Miami University was located when she sent in her application “I did not realize until I got accepted, and the letter said ‘Miami University of Ohio’ It’s not in Florida, it’s in Ohio There’s no beaches, just cornfields in the middle of nowhere,” she said “But I compared Miami with other colleges and Miami had what I was looking for. So Miami it is, and I love it here so far.”

Valerie isn’t alone . Every year, a handful of incoming Miami students admit making similar geography mistakes But Valerie’s became a viral sensation last year when she was in her apartment procrastinating one day, and decided to post about her Miami confusion on TikTok

“I wake up and I check my TikTok and it’s like 99 plus notifications,” she said . “Another day I wake up and I receive texts from my friends saying, ‘Valerie, you’re famous My mom knows you .’ And I’m like, ‘What? Why does your mom know me?’ And then they send me a news article that talks about my TikTok and how this one girl ended up in Ohio instead of Florida And it’s just things like that ”

Her internet fame has died down somewhat since then, which is just as well, because Valerie is a busy student “Aside from being a business student, I’m currently working as a student assistant for the Performing Arts Series . I’ve been working there since first semester of freshman year,” she said “I worked as a tour guide full time in the summer And then this semester, I just happened to have more free time, so I kept being a tour guide part time, which is totally awesome . ”

Valerie is also in the Pi Sigma Epsilon business fraternity and has been a Miami University Student Orientation Undergraduate Leader And she’s been making her TikTok account a resource for others thinking of coming to college in America .

“It feels really nice to know everything about Oxford and Miami because if anyone has any questions, I can just answer them Or even if I don’t know the answers, I know someone who can help them out,” she said . “I just love to help people . That’s why my TikTok page talks about international student problems and answering their questions ”

Valerie is double majoring in marketing and a relatively new major at Miami, emerging technology in business and design . “Growing up I did not really see myself as good at STEM, so I never tried it out . But ETBD has given me such an amazing opportunity to try it, and I realized that, ‘Oh, I’m actually good at it ’ And I like user experience, design research, product design, stuff like that,” she said .

“You’ve got to always exceed expectations. You’ve got to always try to strive for the best version of yourself,” Valerie said “Because at the end of the day, we’re working with clients and customers and we want to make them think ‘Wow, this is really good I want to keep working with you ’”

And even though she made a slight geographic mistake when she applied to Miami, she said she’s found a home here, one she highly recommends . “If you are looking for a true American college experience, you want to have fun, you want to elevate yourself professionally, while being safe, then Miami’s for you,” Valerie said “It was a really, really good mistake ”