At home in england, Lucy Abbott Lavrsen is an occupational therapist. On the Farm, she’s known by a different title: accompanying spouse.
Lavrsen came to Stanford with her Danish husband, Michael, who has a fellowship in cardiothoracic transplantation. When the couple were making plans for the fellowship time at Stanford, they had to consider arrangements for their two children—4-year-old Oliver and 2-year-old Fenya. And Lavrsen wanted to be sure that she’d be able to continue with her own career. “When I was studying at the University of Copenhagen, there were advertisements for occupational therapists [in the Bay Area], and I was told that wages would be good, and that visa and work permit issues would be sorted out,” she recalls. “But it’s not as easy as I’d thought to work in a different country.”
These concerns are familiar to Gwyn Dukes, the adviser to international families at Bechtel International Center. “People have a hard time making a decision,” she says. “‘Shall we come to Stanford? Shall I accompany him or her? Or should I stay and continue with my own career?’” Since 9-11, Dukes adds, additional barriers have arisen “for people who come here and would like to grow and learn more.”
Dukes oversees a number of services at Bechtel for families of students and visiting scholars, including a meet-and-greet on Friday mornings, where children steer tricycles around an outdoor patio while their parents trade tips over coffee. “You meet lots of other people in the same situation as you, and there’s a lot of information there,” Lavrsen says.
Through one contact, Lavrsen spoke with someone in her field who had trained abroad and who advised her not to take the exam that would certify her to work in the United States, because the process was lengthy and costly (about $1,300).
Instead, Lavrsen applied for a grant from the spouse education fund sponsored by Bechtel’s Community Committee for International Students, and received funding that will enable her to take online courses. “It’s going to work out well,” she says. “I don’t need a Social Security number [to enroll], and I’ll be accredited in my career when I return to Europe.” She’s also doing volunteer work at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital: “I’m helping out, and in the department where I want to be. So everybody wins.”
Lavrsen and hundreds of other spouses and partners of international students and visiting scholars can tap into significant resources at Bechtel. In addition to cooking classes, orientation tours, interest groups, potluck dinners and playgroups, there’s English-in-Action, which enables spouses like Keiko Shimono, an orthopedic surgeon at home in Japan and a stay-at-home mom here, to learn critical language skills.
There’s also Gwyn Dukes, whose position is relatively unique. “Not too many campuses have a staff person who’s dedicated to working with spouses and families,” she says. “We’re fortunate that Stanford appreciates that if [spouses] are productively occupied, it’ll be better for everybody.”
Dukes is particularly attuned to the professional needs of significant others. “We have a lot of very highly trained people who want to go on with their professions, and we want to provide them with some next steps.” Bechtel offers workshops on interviewing strategies, as well as a professional liaison program that connects, say, a local architect with an accompanying spouse from Iran in the same field.
Finally, Dukes offers a quarterly workshop on “Making Your Life at Stanford Satisfying” for spouses. She talks about the roller coaster of emotions, expectations and disappointments that are part of adjusting to a new culture. More important, Dukes encourages workshop participants to maintain and assert their own identities. “Nobody knows who you are when you’re here as a spouse,” she says. “But you are your own person.”
