On Returning Home: Find Your Tribe and Roast Your Hunt

Mishirika Scott is the Director, IT PMO at UCLA Anderson School of Management, ad former Project Manager of Student Success Systems at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA). She is the managing partner of Riche Professionals, LLC (a jr. project manager training company) and she values robust engagement with emerging professionals.

  Career Development  

“Back Where She Belongs” is a title of an article in the USC Trojan Family magazine that captured my full attention. On August 6, 2024, Los Angeles native Erika Jordan (Class of 2018) was appointed to lead alumni relations. She had previously studied at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and returned to L.A. in 2007, where she worked at USC Marshall School of Business until 2015.

In 2021, Jordan relocated to work at Boston University, braving the harsh Boston winters—a stark contrast to sunny California. When a vacancy for the USC Alumni Relations Associate Senior Vice President position appeared, she immediately felt like she was being called back home—back to USC’s University Campus, back to being close to family and friends (Hernandez, 64).

That inspired me to explore the nostalgia of returning home, the meaning of finding your tribe and the significance of “roasting your hunt.” Here I will also share 20 practical lessons while seeking your “treasure.” As global practitioners, we embark on new adventures, whether through projects, places, or people. We’re travelers at heart. This article serves as a reminder to “never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon” (Alchemist, 35) along the way. (Stay tuned for the conclusion, where I’ll shed light on the relevance of this quote.)

On Returning…

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