Faculty Speaker Series - Fall 2015
Fifty Years of Culture Shock: Adaptation, Acceptance and Commitment
Lucia Worthington, Business and Management
Plunge yourself into an unknown culture, country and work situation. Then repeat for
a lifetime. That’s what Lucia Worthington, Business and Management instructor, has
been doing for 50 years. But it isn’t always the initial shock that is the most difficult:
she says that “the most significant lessons are not always the original culture shocks
but the re-entry to former familiar environments that are no longer the comfort zones
of the past.” In conjunction with the many activities planned for International Education
Week, she will discuss her experience teaching and learning in six different countries
throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America. The Geert Hofstede model
of cultural dimensions will serve as the framework for this Faculty Speaker Series
presentation.
Lucia Worthington began her lifelong exploration of cultural diversity at the age of eleven when she immigrated to Canada from a small German village with two siblings and her widowed mother. Since then, she has traveled to or lived in 30 different countries, learning more about herself and other cultures with every experience. She has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in the university culture of California; learned about U.S. military culture as a civilian faculty contractor; and adapted to many different national cultures in Asia, Europe and the Middle East as she taught business, management and history to people representing more than 50 nationalities.
Formerly a professor at the University of Maryland, Lucia Worthington has taught Business and Leadership classes at Clark College since 2010. She also serves as faculty advisor to the Clark College Business Division Student Club, BEAM. In 1996, Lucia was among the first to adopt eLearning in Europe – then known as Computer Mediated Distance Learning. She progressed in this new field by combining methods used throughout Canada, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, the United States, and Hong Kong. Certified in Quality Matters, she has served as a project consultant in distance education for institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Worthington is an active community member involved with the Two Rivers Museum of Camas-Washougal, Circle of Peace, and other civic and political groups. As a freelance writer, she writes for The Columbian and the Vancouver Business Journal. She is currently working on her three-part memoir.
A student of life and life-long learning, Worthington earned an associate’s degree in Social Science at Chaffey College in Alta Loma, California, honors bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and History from California Polytechnic University, Pomona, California and a master’s in Management from the Drucker School at the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California. In addition, she holds a graduate certificate in Technology Based Distance Learning from the University of British Columbia and studied European History and Politics at the University of Oxford.
Worthington says her philosophy of teaching and learning is to “explore, learn, and adapt to make the world a better place and to live the life you love.”