HCW Alumna Profile

Building Her Confidence to Help Others Thrive

Vibha Jha Buckingham ’81 (HCW) was a straight A student as a child, even after moving, at 12, to New Haven, Connecticut, from India while her father attended Yale Law School. After arriving, she taught herself English watching children’s public television shows and continued to excel in school. But when her parents and siblings moved back to India two years later and left her at a boarding school, the separation anxiety and loneliness caused her grades to plummet.

None of the colleges she applied to accepted her, and she feared returning to India in shame. While attending a college fair, she talked with a representative from Hartford College for Women (HCW), who invited her to apply. “When HCW accepted me, it felt like someone threw me a lifesaver.”

That experience of being given a chance at a time when she felt desperate has stayed with her throughout her career. It inspired her to see potential in people and help them grow in skills and self-confidence. As associate director at the University of Virginia’s (UVA) Facilities Management Custodial Services, she has worked with a local church pastor to hire refugees from African nations and provide the soft skills training they need to advance in their careers.

“I became involved with refugees about nine years ago,” Vibha says, when a pastor approached her, saying, “I heard you help people. Could you please give me a job?” Working with colleagues, she found the Kenyan immigrant an entrylevel trades job.

She coached refugees on education, hygiene, interview skills, and personal finance. Soon after joining UVA in 2011, “she quickly identified staff development as the key to instilling professionalism, respect, diversity, ownership and engagement in her largely unskilled department,” wrote a colleague in a letter of recommendation for an award. “As one of her first decisions, she hired a seasoned trainer to be part of her team.” Vibha made that choice because she wanted to reach more people than she could help alone, she says. “People who show the potential and interest, we create services for them,” she says. “I give back because so much has been given to me.”

Vibha’s employees credit her with building culturally, socio-economically, and racially diverse teams. Vibha says her Indian heritage has not been much of an issue, but her gender and height— 4 feet, 11 inches—has resulted in discrimination and resistance from some in the male-dominated facilities management field. “I’m not a large physical presence. For some strange reason, people associate your ability with your size,” she says.

Her cultural anthropology degree provided a valuable education to prepare her for her roles leading people, she says. “It’s about understanding how different cultures and subcultures develop and influence behaviors; one must look beyond the surface. When you’re in management, you always have people reporting to you. If you have good critical thinking skills, experience, and intelligence, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

Her work history also includes leadership roles in facilities management at Yale University and for Tunxis Management. And her years of juggling school and restaurant and hotel work built the stamina and tenacity needed for a demanding career.

While attending HCW, she worked in restaurants four nights a week. After her first year at HCW, she spent a gap year in France as an au pair, where she studied and became proficient in French, and regained lost confidence thanks to the psychoanalyst mother of the family she stayed with. One of the side effects of being separated from family was weight gain and feelings of isolation, she says, and her conversations with the psychoanalyst “helped me go from a caterpillar to a butterfly.” In addition to losing weight, she grew and evolved. “In those days in the culture, mental health, emotional challenges—there was no such thing. I used to feel there were two sides to me, the very confident one and the scared kid. I didn’t want to put that scared kid out in the open to have people think I was weak.”

HCW welcomed her back to complete her degree at a time, the early 80s, when gap years were rare. The College’s “belief in me that I was worthy,” still moves Vibha to tears. “The way they supported me, gave me the opportunity, and accepted me back, is something I will never forget.”

While at HCW, she thoroughly enjoyed her French classes with Madam Grattan. “Her kind and gentle nature made me feel safe. I trusted her and knew that if I got in any academic trouble, she would be there for me,” Vibha says. Today, she is fluent in four languages: Hindi, English, French, and Spanish.

After graduating from HCW with an associate’s degree in liberal arts, she worked full time in hospitality to save for college. She got married, and after her son Colin was born, she talked her way into a bachelor’s degree program for adults at Trinity College. Despite the sleep-deprived schedule, she graduated as a Presidential Scholar in her major.

If she could talk to that younger version of herself, she would advise, “Do not let others define you. Know your value. You are powerful. We all have power; recognize it and use it.”

Vibha Jha Buckingham ’81 (HCW)

Hartford College for Women believed in me and showed me I was worthy. The way they supported me, gave me the opportunity, and accepted me back, is something I will never forget.