From China to Minnesota, Avery Crook thrives in the 'small town community' at U of M Crookston

Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and now Crookston! Despite traveling the world, Avery Crook, equine business management major and freshman at the University of Minnesota Crookston, was drawn to the campus with the feeling she “needed to be here.”

Name a country in Asia and Avery Crook could probably tell you a jaw-dropping story about her travels there. In one instance, Crook recalls kayaking in the mangroves of Thailand surrounded by giant monitor lizards, and another having to “fight off”  monkeys on a beach.

“At some point, all of these monkeys came out to the beach - they were vicious!” Crook described. “We had to fight them off with our canoe paddles. The sand felt like quick sand since the tide went out, so you're sinking as you’re trying to fight off these monkeys.”

For context, when Crook was just six years old, and her younger brother was only two, her family, on a whim, packed up and moved to China where they would reside for the next 10 years.

“My parents are very quirky,” Crook joked. “They are so ambitious, and when they want an adventure, they will seek an adventure!”

Crook says the culture in China is very different from the United States. Chinese culture emphasizes travel, and your work and life reflect those values. This ideology allowed Crook and her family to experience many other Asian cultures.

During Chinese New Year, her parent’s workplaces gave them two months off. Throughout these times, Crook and her family would travel. They have traveled to Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Canada, and many other countries.

“One time we went to an island in Hong Kong, and this crazy typhoon came in,” Crook detailed. “We had to walk eight hours, barefoot, through the jungles of Hong Kong to escape the typhoon. There were poisonous snakes and wildlife everywhere!”

In another instance, Crook and her Dad took moped scooters during a layover in Karangasem Regency, Bail, Indonesia. They drove three hours to see Mount Agung, a volcano that they didn’t know was active.

On the way down the mountain, they crashed their mopeds and were injured.

“We were bleeding all over the place, but in order to rent these scooters, the company had to take our passports,” she said. “It wasn’t an option to ditch those scooters.”

The pair drove to a nearby animal clinic. The staff sat there digging gravel and rocks out of their wounds.

Crook says she had to “suck it up” and drive three hours back to the hotel or they’d miss their flight.

During another adventure, Crook and her family were at Pink Beach in Indonesia, near Komodo Island, where she was swimming and got stung by a jellyfish.

“Because you’re in the tropics, literally everything can kill you,” she mentioned.

She also recalled that people carried large sticks to “whack the Komodo dragons.”

Regardless of all these adventures, Crook still says her favorite place she has lived was in Ocala, Florida. Here, she was a working student for four months at the World Equestrian Center. She landed this opportunity through her trainer, and was excited to get to experience all things in the horse world, despite the long trying hours.

Having lived in China a majority of her life, Crook was immersed into Chinese culture through Chinese public schooling and even learned Mandarin Chinese and Shanghainese. Crook says she is lucky to have learned the language so young because it allowed her to pronounce words better, since younger children pick up on those things much easier than adults.

“One time I was speaking Mandarin on the phone with a delivery driver in China, he didn’t want to give me my food when he arrived because he said the person he was talking to on the phone ‘was Chinese,’” Crook recalled.

Crook also enjoys practicing her Mandarin with the international students from China.

“Language is one of those things that if you don’t use it, you lose it,” she explained.

Crook says that she thinks the international students at U of M Crookston enjoy it when she speaks to them in their native tongue because it makes them feel welcome and like they have found someone they share similar experiences with.

Traveling and experiencing different cultures has taught Crook to live life with an open mind, which she says is an extremely valuable lesson.

“There are a lot of similarities in each culture, they share a lot of core values,” Crook clarified.

She has a deep understanding of being a foreigner in a different culture, and says she has learned to not make assumptions or judgments of people. She believes that it is important to put your own biases and experiences aside to hear and help others out.

Crook’s family is currently settled in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

After such a compelling upbringing, Crook was ready for a simpler life.

“I grew up moving around and traveling, so Crookston is really different,” she said. “It’s a really tight knit community.”

“The facilities are so nice and the campus feels so cozy!” Crook added, “As a city girl, I’ve always wanted that small town community feeling.”

Originally being drawn to the U of M Crookston for the equine program, Crook has embraced all facets of the campus community, being involved on the Equestrian Hunt-Seat team, the Multicultural International Club (MIC), and working as a student assistant for student affairs under international student engagement.

Crook loves the work she gets to do with international student engagement. She’s gaining experience in event planning and has helped run multicultural events including the Mid Autumn Festival and the Wild Rice Festival. She says it is a lot like party planning, but she loves to be able to share different cultures with other students.

When first inquiring about the position, Crook wrote her now boss, Rae French, an email detailing her excitement.

“I remember thinking ‘oh gosh please hire me,’” Crook recalled.

Crook says she would love to be more involved with other clubs like Golden Eagle Entertainment, Rodeo Club, and MIC but her busy schedule does not allow her to attend all of the meetings.

A lot of her day is consumed by her sport, Equestrian.

She jokes that she got the “pony bug” at three years old, when she began riding, and that her parents thought she would grow out of her “horse phase.”

Crook even has a horse back home named Bunny.

Being a part of the equestrian team has helped Crook acclimate to college life. She enjoys being able to see familiar faces everyday. Crook says that the team clicked instantly, and because of their away trips and travels as a team, they got to know each other quickly and meshed well.

She recounted a team trip to Delaware when they were competing in their first show.

“We went to the airport at 2:30 a.m. and I just felt so delusional,” she joked. “We were the only ones in this airport and everything was funny to us because we were all so tired.”

Crook says she has an open mind to everything, in reference to her future plans, but she hopes her future involves horses.

“I want to see who I am, and where I am after this,” she explained.

She says she hopes to be in the horse industry somewhere because it is lucrative and interesting. Specifically, Crook wants to work in horse sales and import internationally. She describes herself as a “people person,” and believes she would excel in this field.

Crook detailed some of her prior experiences in international sales and import.

“When I was 14, I orchestrated a $50,000 deal for imported goods from China to the U.S.,” she described. “I translated and organized the deal, was flown out to inspect the products, and I even signed the contract.”

Clearly drawing some of her ambitions from her parents, Crook is excited for what is to come at the U of M Crookston and hopes to become (even) more involved.

“If I had the time I would be in everything!” she exclaimed.