Tell me about a time you successfully adapted to a culturally different environment.

Don't say that your program or presence changed a community for the better. Don't say anything that could be interpreted as devaluing someone else's culture or trying to make them more like you. This question is about how you read and interpret someone else's culture and adapt yourself to work or live in it in a healthy way.

"Growing up in a big city, then attending a big, public university, I was accustomed to a fast-paced work environment and a general culture of busyness. In my first job after college, I landed in a smaller town where the pace was much slower. At first, I kept my old habits and tried to bring my clients and colleagues along with me. But I soon learned that my way was just as foreign to them as their way was to me. I was the odd one out, so I learned to appreciate their slower, more thoughtful perspective. I've carried that with me and now have a good balance of being 'productive' and 'present.'"