Mayo Clinic is a unique place: the culture, the values, the people. "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" explores the experiences of Mayo Clinic staff as they navigate life personally and professionally. Sharing these experiences increases understanding of others, and ultimately contributes to finding connections, belonging and inclusion at work.

In this episode of "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences," you will hear from Axel Gumbel, a communications specialist, and Gaurav Jain, a section head in Information Technology, as they share their experiences and perspectives as first-generation immigrants to the U.S. Gumbel shares his experience coming to the U.S. as a high school exchange student from Germany. Jain shares his perspective on moving to the U.S. as a child.

Listen as they share their experiences or read the transcript below:

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Read the transcript, edited for length and clarity:

GUMBEL: I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated being exposed to other cultures while at the same time sharing my own.

NARRATOR: In this episode, you will hear Axel, a communications specialist, and Gaurav, a section head of Information Technology, share their experiences and perspectives as immigrants to the U.S.

GUMBEL: I grew up as an only child in the city of Worms, Germany. My exposure to America happened early on because my father, who was a pharmacist, owned a business that was right across a U.S. Army base. All these American soldiers would come in to buy their medications. Over time, I would get to know some of them. They would bring in American candy, which was very fascinating to me. I specifically remember my very first experience with an amazing American candy called Pop Rocks. I put this in my mouth and that was the first time where I thought, "Wow, this is America."

In the early '90s, I chose to pursue a high school exchange year. I lived with a host family in Minneapolis and went to an American high school. That's really when I fell in love with not only the state of Minnesota, where I live now, but also with the American way of life.

Then, I decided to pursue college in America. At the time, it was just that plan — to pursue a four-year college degree in broadcast journalism. Lo and behold, I met the person who now is my American wife, during my senior year in college. Here I am, almost 20 years later, with four kids and firmly entrenched in American life. I'm loving it.

JAIN: I did not have the experience of visiting before the decision was made to migrate to the U.S. My aunt had been living in the U.S. and had been working at Mayo at that time. She's retired now. She was the one who sponsored my dad for a U.S. visa. This is even before I was actually born.

It takes a long time if you're an Indian citizen to go through the normal queue process and get the visa. So when I was 11 and our visa number came up, my dad went through the process of getting all that information completed so we could migrate to the U.S. As I was growing up, I did have that opportunity to hear from my dad that we are in the line to go to the U.S.

I lived in a small city called Malerkotla in the Punjab district where my parents and my grandparents had lived. It's a really close well-knit sort of a family neighborhood and kids are running around between houses. You're calling everybody "uncle" and "aunt."

I was living a life of my own and didn't really quite understand what that would mean to me when we migrated to the U.S. Before coming here, my parents had put me in an English-medium school. But that was a very interesting realization of sorts that my English was not American English. There's a big difference in accents as well as the culture — how you say things and enunciate. That was a fun little exercise to go through after I had transitioned to the U.S.

GUMBEL: Would you go as far as to say you experienced culture shock?

JAIN: It was a shock to the nth degree. You greet somebody here — you call them by their first name. When I was making new friends, I made the mistake of calling somebody "uncle" and they said, "He's not your uncle." So, that's a shock in itself. Being a vegetarian coming to the U.S. — that was a very interesting exercise — going to a restaurant and not being able to find anything. When I discovered Subway, that was a big thing for me.

GUMBEL: I love your reference to the first-name basis that you know Americans are on all the time. I remember going to an American bank to open my very first account. I was invited to this person's office. I introduced myself and said, "I'm Mr. Gumbel." And then he said, "You can call me Bob." And I said, "Bob who?" And he said, "Just call me Bob. That's how it works here."

I have found that it's a lot easier here in America to connect with somebody just by being able to call them by a first name.

JAIN: In India, you generally didn't look your elders in the eye. You call them "uncle" or "aunt" or some sort of a reference that was a sign of respect. So early on, to call somebody who's senior to me by their first name, it was a very difficult thing. In my mind I was debating, "Is this disrespectful or not?" Even now, there are times when I go back and forth between the U.S. culture and the Indian. At gatherings where you introduce yourself, you almost have to switch a flip and say, "Am I in the Indian culture now or am I in the American culture?"

GUMBEL: I've lived here for over 20 years. But, to this day, when people find out I'm from Germany, oftentimes they will tell me the percentage of their own ethnicity — how much of that is German because great, great, great grandparents might be from Germany. That was my first window into how Americans really like to celebrate their heritage. I love that because it creates a lot of interest in these various cultures. At Mayo Clinic, we have the perfect melting pot to get to know each other in this way. Back home in Germany, I grew up in a fairly homogeneous society meaning, there wasn't a lot of diversity. Not until I came to Mayo did I realize what a great way this place has been to teach me about other places in the world.

JAIN: I couldn't agree more. This is something that if you don't think about it, you take it for granted. I have been pleasantly impressed and surprised at the diversity that exists in our workplace — the different ethnicities that are here, but also the diversity of thoughts. We talk about the RICH TIES values that we gain from it. I feel that we embody that at Mayo, across every employee. I've had people come to me in a lunchroom where I have my pickles open and I/m eating my paratha. Somebody might come up to me and say, "This smells really good," and we get into a conversation. We connect in the future in the lunchroom again, and we talk about some other aspect of the culture. That's the value that we have at Mayo, and I absolutely love it. We're open about it. We talk about it. In the end, it just makes us all stronger.

GUMBEL: I couldn't agree more, especially on the food part. I have enjoyed all of these ethnic offerings that we've seen in the Mayo cafeterias. It's too bad now that I work from home because of COVID-19. But before that, I would make frequent trips to the cafeterias in Rochester and check out some of the ethnic food stations because that was just another way to learn another taste, learn about another culture. Food has been such a great connector. You and I have different perspectives because we have different backgrounds. But it sounds like we very much agree on the benefits that our migration has had for us in our personal lives.

JAIN: Absolutely and how we are embraced as well. That's the other key thing especially with so much happening in the world right now and different views of immigration. When you step into Mayo virtually or physically, you forget the outside world because of the strong values that this organization employs. I've really been blessed being that Mayo Clinic has been the only organization that I've been in.

GUMBEL: We talked a lot about our own values and the value we get from being here. What do you think Americans take for granted? What are some of their values that you've picked up on?

JAIN: Being able to cross the street. In reality, when I go to India, I have to go ask somebody "Can you help me cross the street?" because of the automobiles rushing back and forth. Being able to enjoy the quietness, the harmony with the environment, the amount of resources we have at our disposal — sometimes we take that for granted. There are other countries where, based on the population stress on the land and others, there are so many things that you have to struggle with on a day in, day out basis. The resource richness that we have within the U.S. and the freedom to choose these topics of what we want to pursue are highly valuable.

GUMBEL: You hit it on the head there — this whole concept of freedom. Freedom to make life choices to freedom to believe in something, freedom to define your own happiness — that's what this country has taught me the most. People are blessed with their freedoms. They want to defend them and share them too. That is a guiding light around here that I can appreciate. I don't know what your plans are, but I seem to be here more or less permanently now even though I had plans to return after college. I've always questioned whether I should pursue citizenship. I'm at the point where I've said I will do that if I reach the point where I've lived in America longer than in Germany. That day will come in 2022 or when both my parents are gone. Right now, my mother's still alive. Citizenship is definitely something I'm thinking about. The thing that comes with it is the right to vote. My kids are nine, seven, five and three. You think a lot about, "Maybe I do want to vote so I can help make decisions for them too as they grow up." So, it's been on my mind.

JAIN: I am a citizen. I have been in the U.S. now way longer than I was in India, and this is certainly my home. I feel like I have a foot in both worlds, but the U.S. is where my home is. If I were in India, I would be a fish out of water in many ways. When I came to the U.S. I brought the culture that existed in India at that point with me. But since then, the culture has certainly evolved. The practice has evolved. Technology has created a whole new set of things that I am very foreign to from an Indian perspective. I would be remiss not to say Mayo would be another key reason. I've been part of Mayo since I got out of college, and the relationships that I have built here are very valuable to me.

GUMBEL: Even as a non-citizen, I feel like I'm part of my community here at work and at home. I'm big into volunteering, which is another thing I appreciate very much about this country. This idea to serve others — I've really latched on to that concept because it gives me great pride. It builds community, a sense of belonging. I feel like I've reached that perfect equilibrium in my personal life and professional life where I can live out that passion in both places. We talked prior to this conversation about how we would like Americans to view immigrants. And as I thought about this, we shouldn't even really ask this question. By asking this question, we almost validate immigrants or a diverse group as being separate from us but really, we're not. I think back to our work at Mayo and staff at Mayo, we're all the same. We're all humans. We all have our jobs at Mayo. We have our personal lives and passions and beliefs. Meeting somebody from another country or another culture is just a perfect window into the world that I love to explore.

JAIN: I agree 100%. To label you as an immigrant or to label myself as an immigrant — we would not be appreciating all the other elements that you would be bringing to your home, to your friends, to the workplace. You should view each other as colleagues, as teammates and be able to embrace elements of the various uniqueness that you bring. Being an immigrant may just be one of them.

NARRATOR: Reflect on this conversation. What did you learn and what are the questions you could ask fellow colleagues to learn more about different cultures and perspectives?

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