It's a long way from Lehighton to China.

Nonetheless, it's a trek Jennifer Everett is prepared to make.A 2010 graduate of Lehighton Area High School, Everett graduated from Drexel University with a degree in international business and economic development."After completing a five-year program in International Area Studies early, I started the job search like every college graduate," Everett said. "I had completed numerous internships in marketing and communications and I was good at them, so I looked there."To bring together her passions in international issues and marketing, Everett found a job doing marketing for an international nonprofit organization. She traveled through Europe and even to Africa over the past four year."Working for a year to take a two-week vacation somewhere did not seem appealing to me," Everett said. "I wanted to be enveloped by a culture, as I was while I studied in Paris for nine months, but still be in a completely different atmosphere, like when I volunteered in Ghana."Everett said she started to think about all the different people that she had met while traveling. There was one man in particular, she said, who taught English in Iraq, and every four weeks he was able to travel wherever he wanted for a week."Being that I am a broke graduate with student loans coming in (several) months, I thought, "If I am already broke, why not be broke somewhere that I am happy?"Her arrivalEverett will arrive today in Shanghai to attend an orientation hosted by CIEE, the program that helped her obtain a teaching position.From there, she will fly to Guangzhou, China, where she will begin teaching at the Guangzhou Xinde English Training School on Tuesday."China is full of these English training schools," she said. "Basically, they only hire (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certified teachers, and then they send them to private schools that need English teachers, so it's more of a business than a school."Everett said she could be teaching at any level, 3-6, 7-13, or 13-15, with the class size between 25 to 40 students."I think that the experience of living in China will be another addition to my international experiences that will hopefully lead me to a career that will allow me to travel," she said. "With my specialization in International Business and Economics, China is the right place to be."She said, "if I can learn Mandarin while I'm there, that will put me in a perfect position for applying to International Consultant positions. I think that my long-term internship positions have helped me develop management and intrapersonal skills, but I want to do something more."Everett said she will have blog about work, day-to-day activities, her schools and travels."It's important to me to make this clear that I am not doing this because I am avoiding my future, but I truly think that this experience will prepare me better than "paying my dues" somewhere and be unhappy at a desk for five years," she said. "The people that do that will not know the language, the culture, social etiquette like I will."Everett said she will draw upon her experiences from abroad."While I was abroad, I wrote a blog about how lucky we are as Americans that English is our first language," she said. "When I am traveling, nine times out of 10, the person that I walk up to with a question will know enough English to give me an answer."Everett added, "My French host parents told me how difficult it is for them to visit some countries because the only alternative language will be English," she said. "We don't realize the advantage that we have by speaking a dominant language in the world."Her goalsIn the meantime, Everett said she has several goals while she's teaching abroad."First, I want to make a difference in my students' lives," she said. "When I was getting my shots at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, one of the office staff came up and told me that she was from Romania and remembers when she was 8 years old and Americans came to her school to teach English."Everett said, "I want to make my English lessons fun, exciting and memorable so that they can remember me 20 years from now, too. I would like to give as much to the schools that I am teaching at as well. I am planning to propose an "English Corner" after-school activity that students can choose to attend for extra English practice."In preparation of her move, Everett said she sublet her apartment in Philadelphia, and will finish a year with a role that begun as a marketing internship with Franklin Square Capital Partners. In addition, she has been working as a store manager at Bradamant, a clothing retail store after her full-time job and on the weekends to save up money to cover her until she can open a Chinese bank account.Everett said, "I plan on making friends when I get over there, whether it's my 60-year-old neighbor, a young teenager laughing at my attempts in the market; there will be someone that I can teach English and they can teach me Mandarin."@Quote.News:"I plan on making friends when I get over there, whether it's my 60-year-old neighbor, a young teenager laughing at my attempts in the market; there will be someone that I can teach English and they can teach me Mandarin."@Quote.Byline1:Jennifer Everett@Quote.Byline2:Lehighton graduate in China