Last year, Matthew Gomies graduated from CGU with a PhD in Economics. Today, he is an Association Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). His background is in finance, finance investment and microeconomics. In his role at ECLAC Matthew’s work involves analyzing trade policies for Latin American and the Caribbean countries.

Though he is originally from Indonesia he lives in Chile where ECLAC is headquartered.  To him, the most notable differences between his home country, the United States and Chile have to do with language and culture. “I’m still adjusting. Here most of the people speak Spanish. And I’m still kind of studying Spanish to be able to at least converse regularly with my co-workers,” he said. 

Thankfully, at CGU Matthew had spent a lot of time with other international students and he believes that’s prepared him for the adjustments with his current co-workers. “I had a lot of fun [at GCU] because I had many international students, friends from China, Japan, Korea and the Middle East and my home country as well. CGU had a lot of events and that was useful to gain friends, and connections especially from different fields.”

As he continues with his career, Matthew hopes to eventually make a valuable contribution to his home country.   “I analyze the Philippines countries now and I’m thinking that could be helpful for Indonesia in terms of export and import as well. I think in Indonesia exports will be improved and imports and economic development as well.”