Her soft-spoken personality and passing grades may make her seem average, but don’t be bamboozled. Sophomore justice administration major Layna Broux is a worldwide traveler. If you observe her close enough, you can hear her Dutch accent.
Twenty-one-years-old and multilingual, Broux comes from the small European country known as The Netherlands. According to her, The Netherlands consists of about 17 million people and is not a well-known country in the U.S. Since moving here, she has learned that The Netherlands is mostly known for its capital city, Amsterdam. Broux moved to the U.S. strictly by chance. “Back home I kind of grew up hearing about the United States as the big and the better and the best, I always looked up to America.”
Although the U.S. was an obvious choice for Broux to travel to, she admits that it wasn’t the only reason for moving here, “I met someone online, and we talked for a little while and then I decided to come over here.” She flew over 4,000 miles to reside in the small town of Carlinville for a girl. She asked her parents at the young age of 20 if she could move halfway across the world to be united with the girl she had met online. She got the okay, but it wasn’t everything it panned out to be. “I came [to the U.S.] and then this person wasn’t who she said she was, I was catfished.”
She spent hundreds of dollars to come to the U.S. and didn’t want to give all of it up just because her original plan didn’t work out. After she met up with the online girl and things didn’t work out, she decided to make the best of the situation and apply to colleges. “Soon after I got an acceptance letter from Blackburn and decided to get an education in the U.S.”
Broux is currently doing well at Blackburn and her English has improved tremendously, but she accepts that things are more difficult in another language and culture. “People say that I’m really rude, there is a fine line between being blunt or being honest and being mean. I think Americans are easily offended, that’s the biggest cultural difference.” Since last year, when she began at Blackburn, despite the challenges, Broux has become one with this nation and culture. She has worked her way up the ladder becoming department manager in Dining and Hospitality. General manager for Sodexo who oversees Dining and Hospitality, Joe Piechowski creates a bright picture for Layna as well. “Layna is a great worker, she’s very dedicated and she’s good at what she does.”