Susan Gobbo, leader of International Spouses Meetup Group sponsored by Mosaic, highlighted in Gazelle Magazine

The Melting Pot: Susan Gobbo

“I was working at a well-known heart hospital—I was at the top of my career…Our profession is part of our identity. But for a certain time, I was ‘Laura’s mom,’ ‘Mauricio’s wife’—what about my identity? In Brazil, they called me ‘Dr. Susan.’ Here, because of my broken English, people assumed I didn’t have an education…”

photo by Bryan Schraier

When you look at Susan Gobbo’s business card, you’ll see a job title—International Spouses Consultant—that will likely require further explanation.

Gobbo is the founder and coordinator of the STL International Spouses Meetup Group, created to embrace foreign-born women who move to the area due to their spouse’s job transfer or assignment by helping them settle down and easing their transition to new surroundings. Gobbo also supervises the International Mentoring Program, which connects international women with local women to help them integrate into the local community.

Gobbo’s involvement came out of downright necessity—perhaps even desperation.

“I needed help when we first moved here,” she said. “I didn’t have that help.”

Gobbo and her husband, along with their young daughter, moved to the U.S. from Brazil in 2005. Mauricio, her husband of 20 years, works for Nestlé. He was transferred to Connecticut for a global project, then was asked to come to St. Louis in 2008.

 “We were supposed to go back to Brazil after his project, but there was a good opportunity for him to grow his career in St. Louis—so we stayed,” she explained.

Gobbo hails from Piraju, a small town in São Paulo in south Brazil. She left her hometown when she started college to study to become a physical therapist—a profession she would thrive in for the next 15 years.

“I was working at a well-known heart hospital—one of the best in Brazil—I was at the top of my career,” she said. “When we moved to the U.S., I didn’t speak any English. It was hard in the beginning—we had not planned on living here for good.”

At the time, Gobbo’s visa was tied to her husband’s, which meant that she was unable to work.

“I was kind of lost,” she admitted. “Our profession is part of our identity. But for a certain time, I was ‘Laura’s mom,’ ‘Mauricio’s wife’—what about my identity? In Brazil, they called me ‘Dr. Susan.’ Here, because of my broken English, people assumed I didn’t have an education…”

With her life turned upside down, Gobbo realized she was at a low point.

“Your confidence goes down, you start staying at home more,” she explained. “I started feeling that I wasn’t being me. I’m normally an extroverted person, I love being active; then suddenly, I wasn’t feeling useful.”

To fill the void, she began taking English classes at St. Louis Community College. During one class, the teacher asked the students to write an essay in English, but Gobbo did not care for any of the suggested topics. Instead, the teacher advised her to write from the heart.

“Right around that time, I had just gotten my green card and found out I wasn’t able to work as a physical therapist in St. Louis,” she recalled. “I had completed post-graduate studies, I had authored a reference manual on physical therapy in Portuguese, I had 15 years of experience, but the credits didn’t translate and now, I had to start from scratch.”

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