Get to Know Us: Berry Koné
Driven by Purpose and Curiosity, Berry Koné is an Unstoppable Force.
Berry Koné has never met a challenge too intimidating for her to accept.
Berry is curious by nature. Curious about the world. Curious about people. Curious about her own limits.
This curiosity is what drove her to move away from her native Ivory Coast, first to Ghana and later to the US, to learn more about the world she saw on TV.
Media has a way of shaping how we view the world—for good and for bad, for true and for false.
If I tell you to picture hungry children, what do you see?
How about if I ask you to picture a vibrant city where tight-knit friend groups hang out in bars and coffee shops?
Whatever you pictured, it was likely driven by the media you’ve consumed over the course of your life—news, TV shows, movies, commercials, public service announcements, etc.
However, whatever you pictured at best doesn’t tell the full story and at worst conjures up a completely false image.
This reality is something Berry has experienced and wrestled with on both sides. First, by watching international news outlets treat the entire continent she lived on as one of monolithic, abject poverty and despair. While simultaneously knowing the truth of living in an incredibly diverse country with vibrant communities, high standards of living, and a landscape that is basically paradise.
The next major clash of expectations versus reality hit when she came to the US for college. Expecting to experience the tight-knit social life depicted on Friends, or the fun college hijinks depicted in American Pie, she instead found herself living in rural Minnesota, discovering America can be a cold (literally and figuratively), isolating place.
This is where despair would take over for many. Alone in a new place, trying to learn the language and culture.
But that’s not how Berry looked at things. Instead, she said, “okay, this wasn’t what I was expecting, but I can do this.”
She focused first on learning English, taking classes until she became proficient enough to move into her major. When the time came to choose her major, she chose anthropology.
This was not the plan. She had told her parents she planned to major in accounting. But the allure of cultivating her curiosity in people, culture, and civilization convinced her to follow her passion over the clearer career path. Plus, as she said to me, “Anthropology is learning about people, there’s no way it won’t help me get a job.”
She paired that major with a minor in Film Studies.
There’s something poignant to me about the pairing of those two courses of study: Anthropology and Film Studies.
