Marina McCloskey, a Texas Tech international student alumna who grew up in Russia, graduated in December, 1994, with her Bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Marketing. After receiving her BA from Texas Tech, Marina went on to earn an MBA at Long Island University, a Master's of Science in Management Research at the University of Oxford, and a CFA charter through the Chartered Financial Analyst Program.

Her studies at Tech gave her confidence in her abilities, which prepared her well for advanced studies in Finance. “It would have been impossible to continue school without speaking American English well. If it were not for the patience of everyone I met at Tech, I would not have been able to master fluent conversational English,” she says. Conversational English was not the only thing Marina gained from her time at Tech. Understanding a new culture and learning to assimilate to a foreign environment are a few of the struggles that an international student faces. For example, thank-you notes were never a part of Russian culture, but Marina quickly learned that they were essential etiquette in the U.S. As she puts it, “Looking back I realize that Foreign Student Advisors are the real unsung heroes of the University for international students: they are the ones who have to explain to foreigners what are essentially basic concepts of American rules and norms.” Marina tells the story of a social faux pas she committed at a large dinner party when she misused the phrase, “He is full of it,” when she meant to say, “He is deeply involved in this project”! Marina is grateful for all the students and faculty that extended grace and patience while she discovered who she could be in her new environment.

Marina and her husband, Gerard, whom she met in New York 18 years ago while pursuing her MBA, now live in a quiet neighborhood in Queens, New York. Her education has provided her with work experience at Merrill Lynch in the Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities Group and at PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) as a marketing manager of consulting services to private equity clients. Looking back at her time at Tech, Marina's favorite memories include people's wonderful ability to engage, the sincerity of their smiles, and, of course, the abundance of sunshine in Lubbock.

Posted date: 07/22/2014

Marina McCloskey (in hat) and her former TTU roommate Angelica Batueva pose alongside the Texas Tech tile that they chanced upon while climbing the world-famous Escadaria Selarón in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.