Susie Chhetri
Author | Founder of The Rising Age | International Student Mentor | Advocate for Belonging, Resilience & Purpose
About Susie Chhetri
Originally from Nepal and now based in Melbourne, Australia, Susie has spent more than eight years walking the international student journey herself. Through financial pressure, cultural adjustment, language barriers, visa uncertainty, grief, depression, personal reinvention, and the emotional weight of building a life far from home, she has learned how to turn struggle into strength — not by pretending the challenges disappear, but by developing the mindset, self-awareness, and inner resilience to move through them with clarity.
Today, Susie mentors international students, creates educational and motivational content, and has written a book under The Rising Age name. Her work is centred on helping students move from survival mode into a mindset of growth, possibility, purpose, and self-belief. She is especially passionate about supporting students from non-English-speaking and developing-country backgrounds who arrive overseas with big dreams, family expectations, and the pressure to build a better future while quietly carrying loneliness, uncertainty, and self-doubt.
Susie’s message is calm, compassionate, and deeply lived. She speaks not as someone standing above the struggle, but as someone still walking the road with wisdom, empathy, and a genuine desire to show others a way forward. Her conversations are especially valuable for audiences interested in international student wellbeing, migration, resilience, women’s leadership, belonging, purpose, personal transformation, and turning adversity into service.
Susie is passionate about sharing how international students can create a sense of home away from home, why personal wellbeing must come before achievement, and how young people can stop getting lost in survival pressures and reconnect with the bigger purpose of their journey. Her goal is not to make the conversation about herself, but to leave listeners feeling seen, encouraged, and equipped to take the next step with more hope and inner strength.
Key topics
The Secret to Turning Survival Into Strength
Many people believe adversity is something they need to escape before they can begin building a meaningful life. But for Susie Chhetry, adversity became the very place where her purpose was formed. After moving from Nepal to Australia as an international student, Susie faced the reality of rebuilding her life in a foreign country while navigating cultural adjustment, language barriers, financial pressure, visa uncertainty, grief, depression, and personal reinvention. In this conversation, Susie shares how she slowly learned to turn struggle into strength by reconnecting with her inner wisdom, rebuilding her confidence, and choosing to see her pain as preparation rather than proof of failure. She speaks openly about the emotional cost of starting again, but also about the quiet transformation that happens when someone stops waiting for life to become easy and begins finding meaning within the difficulty. Listeners will walk away with a grounded and hopeful perspective on resilience, self-trust, and personal transformation. Susie offers a powerful reminder that you do not need to have everything figured out before you can become a source of strength for others. Sometimes, your purpose begins while you are still in the middle of the journey.
Why Purpose Is the Antidote to Endless Survival Mode
Many young immigrants feel trapped in a cycle of surviving financial stress, visa uncertainties, and cultural challenges that consume their energy and obscure wider meaning in their journey. This survival mode can feel never-ending and isolating. Drawing on her personal story and work with international students, Susie Chhetri reveals how reconnecting with a larger, self-defined purpose unveils a pathway out of this exhausting cycle. She has developed a practical purpose-driven Growth Framework that helps students tap into their inner wisdom to discover what truly matters beyond immediate pressures. By the end of this conversation, listeners will understand how aligning daily actions with a deeper purpose fosters resilience, hope, and motivation. Susie equips them with tools to shift from merely surviving to thriving with clarity and joyful intention.
Why Finding Home Abroad Feels Harder Than Landing a Job
Many international students and young immigrants find themselves overwhelmed not just by academics or career pressures but by a profound sense of homelessness in unfamiliar environments. This lack of a feeling of belonging often undercuts their confidence and wellbeing, even when other areas of life seem to be on track. Susie Chhetri draws from eight years of navigating life as an international student from Nepal in Australia and mentoring others on the same path. She has witnessed firsthand how the absence of cultural and emotional belonging can quietly erode resilience and block personal growth, regardless of external success. Her movement, The Rising Age, centers this overlooked experience and offers practical frameworks for cultivating a sense of belonging as a vital foundation. Listeners will gain insight into why building emotional home is essential before achievement can truly flourish. Susie reveals simple mindset shifts and community strategies that empower students and immigrants to create meaningful belonging, transforming isolation into connection and opening new pathways for wellbeing and purpose.
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Key topics
The Secret to Turning Survival Into Strength
Many people believe adversity is something they need to escape before they can begin building a meaningful life. But for Susie Chhetry, adversity became the very place where her purpose was formed. After moving from Nepal to Australia as an international student, Susie faced the reality of rebuilding her life in a foreign country while navigating cultural adjustment, language barriers, financial pressure, visa uncertainty, grief, depression, and personal reinvention. In this conversation, Susie shares how she slowly learned to turn struggle into strength by reconnecting with her inner wisdom, rebuilding her confidence, and choosing to see her pain as preparation rather than proof of failure. She speaks openly about the emotional cost of starting again, but also about the quiet transformation that happens when someone stops waiting for life to become easy and begins finding meaning within the difficulty. Listeners will walk away with a grounded and hopeful perspective on resilience, self-trust, and personal transformation. Susie offers a powerful reminder that you do not need to have everything figured out before you can become a source of strength for others. Sometimes, your purpose begins while you are still in the middle of the journey.
Why Purpose Is the Antidote to Endless Survival Mode
Many young immigrants feel trapped in a cycle of surviving financial stress, visa uncertainties, and cultural challenges that consume their energy and obscure wider meaning in their journey. This survival mode can feel never-ending and isolating. Drawing on her personal story and work with international students, Susie Chhetri reveals how reconnecting with a larger, self-defined purpose unveils a pathway out of this exhausting cycle. She has developed a practical purpose-driven Growth Framework that helps students tap into their inner wisdom to discover what truly matters beyond immediate pressures. By the end of this conversation, listeners will understand how aligning daily actions with a deeper purpose fosters resilience, hope, and motivation. Susie equips them with tools to shift from merely surviving to thriving with clarity and joyful intention.
Why Finding Home Abroad Feels Harder Than Landing a Job
Many international students and young immigrants find themselves overwhelmed not just by academics or career pressures but by a profound sense of homelessness in unfamiliar environments. This lack of a feeling of belonging often undercuts their confidence and wellbeing, even when other areas of life seem to be on track. Susie Chhetri draws from eight years of navigating life as an international student from Nepal in Australia and mentoring others on the same path. She has witnessed firsthand how the absence of cultural and emotional belonging can quietly erode resilience and block personal growth, regardless of external success. Her movement, The Rising Age, centers this overlooked experience and offers practical frameworks for cultivating a sense of belonging as a vital foundation. Listeners will gain insight into why building emotional home is essential before achievement can truly flourish. Susie reveals simple mindset shifts and community strategies that empower students and immigrants to create meaningful belonging, transforming isolation into connection and opening new pathways for wellbeing and purpose.
View all topics →