Title:Helping women move through the world confidently

Etiquette expert and entrepreneur Sara Jane Ho (C’07) considers herself a microculture anthropologist. Living in multiple countries across the world, she learned etiquette in each setting.

Ho explains that etiquette is contextual in her book Mind Your Manners: How To Be Your Best Self In Any Situation. She provides a guide on how to be your best self in five “microcultures”: social life and friendship, work, dating and relationships, family, and food and travel.

Since founding her finishing school, Institute Sarita in Beijing, Ho is extending her focus on women’s well-being by launching a new intimate wellness brand.

“Everything I’ve done in my career has been across two realms. One realm is East meets West and the second realm is helping women move through the world confidently,” says Ho.

Her new brand, Antevorta, produces feminine care products formulated with traditional Chinese medicine.

“Growing up in Hong Kong I used herbal remedies and the family of my co-founder, Annie, owns traditional Chinese medicine clinics in Taiwan,” she says. “It is important to us to take what makes us healthy and happy, and share it with the world.”

Ho chose Georgetown because she liked the charm of the campus. She studied English and government, but her psychology and anthropology classes still stand out to her.

“To this day I still keep the notes from my Intro to Psychology class with Steven Sabat—just an absolutely incredible class,” says Ho. “He opened our eyes and our minds to everything from how to communicate to how to raise kids. We also talked about social experiments. I remember at the end of that class all of us jumped to our feet and gave him a standing ovation.”

Her education at Georgetown and Harvard Business School led her to becoming resident etiquette expert on The Drew Barrymore Show and starring in the Netflix series Mind Your Manners.

At Georgetown, Ho suggests people should make more eye contact for better etiquette.

“When you pass each other on Healy lawn or somewhere else, you should smile and make eye contact,” she says. “The power of a smile can really uplift somebody. When you make someone happy, that makes you happy.”