Well, it’s safe to say I finally got this blog started. WordPress was easy, I was told…until you run into all those darn formatting issues. Anyways, thanks for rolling through my first blog post! If you haven’t heard, this summer I’ll be going on an 8-week service trip to Vietnam from June 15th – August 14th through the DukeEngage program at Duke University, which seeks to provide students an immersive service experience providing meaningful assistance to communities in the U.S. and abroad. The program I (along with 11 others) have chosen to partake this summer is the DukeEngage in Vietnam.
Started in 2009, the goals of this program was aimed at helping improve the quality of life in the rural Quảng Trị province of Central Vietnam. Hit especially hard during the war, the Central Vietnam area has some of the highest need in the country, lacking adequate infrastructure and sanitation in schools and homes. As volunteers, we are are each partnered with a local college student from the nearby Hue University and are handed two tasks: (1) improve the language skills of local high school students through ESL teachings and (2) ameliorate some of the poor living and working conditions in the village through government-suggested construction projects. This year in particular, there will be two different project sites. Both entail building restrooms for the Tan Quoc Toan Primary school (450 students) and Luong The Vinh Secondary School (350 students). Before we even get to our project site, we’ll be spending about 9 days in Vietnam’s capital, Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, the former name as some of the locals still call it) for culture and language immersion and orientation.
Personally, I chose this program for a variety of reasons. I felt like the work we were doing would have an impact that would last much longer than the duration our group was staying there. ESL is an extremely important aspect to modern day Vietnamese education. There are a lot of students applying for colleges, but there are a limited amount of spaces, pushing many students to seek an education abroad. Radical globalization throughout Vietnam in the past decade also makes English a must. The healthcare and sanitation in rural areas are also lacking behind that of their urban counterparts, making this sector a strong focus within the project as well. The most unique thing I find about this project is that each of us students from Duke will be paired and rooming with a Hue University student, providing an outlet for cross-cultural understanding and exchange.
My flight leaves tomorrow and there’s plenty of emotions running through me right now, but the one that sticks out the most is eagerness. I’m eager to go and explore a part of the world I’ve never seen before. I’m eager to meet my roommate and share an adventure with him. I’m eager to see the rest of the Duke University accomplices (they’re really dope, trust me). I’m eager to try the FOOD!!! Thank you to everyone who has helped get me and my group to this place, and thanks to you for reading it (if you got this far). I’ll be keeping this blog updated weekly to share my experiences.
đến lúc đó! (until then!)
Started in 2009, the goals of this program was aimed at helping improve the quality of life in the rural Quảng Trị province of Central Vietnam. Hit especially hard during the war, the Central Vietnam area has some of the highest need in the country, lacking adequate infrastructure and sanitation in schools and homes. As volunteers, we are are each partnered with a local college student from the nearby Hue University and are handed two tasks: (1) improve the language skills of local high school students through ESL teachings and (2) ameliorate some of the poor living and working conditions in the village through government-suggested construction projects. This year in particular, there will be two different project sites. Both entail building restrooms for the Tan Quoc Toan Primary school (450 students) and Luong The Vinh Secondary School (350 students). Before we even get to our project site, we’ll be spending about 9 days in Vietnam’s capital, Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon, the former name as some of the locals still call it) for culture and language immersion and orientation.
Personally, I chose this program for a variety of reasons. I felt like the work we were doing would have an impact that would last much longer than the duration our group was staying there. ESL is an extremely important aspect to modern day Vietnamese education. There are a lot of students applying for colleges, but there are a limited amount of spaces, pushing many students to seek an education abroad. Radical globalization throughout Vietnam in the past decade also makes English a must. The healthcare and sanitation in rural areas are also lacking behind that of their urban counterparts, making this sector a strong focus within the project as well. The most unique thing I find about this project is that each of us students from Duke will be paired and rooming with a Hue University student, providing an outlet for cross-cultural understanding and exchange.
My flight leaves tomorrow and there’s plenty of emotions running through me right now, but the one that sticks out the most is eagerness. I’m eager to go and explore a part of the world I’ve never seen before. I’m eager to meet my roommate and share an adventure with him. I’m eager to see the rest of the Duke University accomplices (they’re really dope, trust me). I’m eager to try the FOOD!!! Thank you to everyone who has helped get me and my group to this place, and thanks to you for reading it (if you got this far). I’ll be keeping this blog updated weekly to share my experiences.
đến lúc đó! (until then!)