I had such an incredible experience as a Public Health Remote Intern in Hanoi, Vietnam. From the support I received to the work I did with my team, I could not have asked for a more positive internship experience. Despite the fact that I was not able to travel to Vietnam, I felt so connected to the people and culture. The relationships I have built and the lessons I have learned are so priceless and humbling. I truly commend this program for the wonderful work they do and I am so incredibly grateful What is your advice to future travelers on this program? The advice I would give as a former intern is to always keep an opened mind and be willing to adapt to unfamiliar circumstances. Flexibility is very important and makes the experience considerably more enjoyable.

Special thanks to ABROADER and my intern company, MCD for making this experience once in a life-time. Huge thank you for everyone who made this dream into a reality. I made new friends and was immersed into the beautiful culture of Vietnam and was able to apply and adapt techniques I learnt in school at work.

My experience as a virtual intern was amazing! I and other interns were provided with many creative and engaging cultural activities. In our learning sessions about Vietnamese culture, we were always encouraged to share our own cultures with others which showed us that despite our differences, we have many similarities. My favorite activity in this internship was our cultural workshops, where we learned about Vietnamese traditions, cuisines, drinking culture, and work culture. We were also able to have a virtual cooking lesson and learned how to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls, which was fantastic to watch and to eat in my own home. I also enjoyed meeting and interacting with the local buddies during our workshop sessions. We created a group chat where we shared pictures of food and nature, which influenced us to have many great conversations about our lives. Being a virtual intern in this program showed me that we can continue to build and have relationships with people, beyond the barriers of a pandemic and living in different countries. I have learned to value my time and relationships with my new friends in Vietnam, and I feel that I will always have this community of friends who will support me in my life and career. Joining this remote internship has been one of the most positive and lovely experiences that I have had during the pandemic. This experience has motivated me to travel to Vietnam in the future. I can’t wait to experience the wonderful Vietnam and Vietnamese culture, and to finally meet my wonderful friends in person. Thank you so much to the site team and the local buddies for all of your love and support through my internship. Cảm ơn!!

When people ask me how I changed this summer, I tell them I aged eight years. Because the best way I know how to encompass all that I learned and how I matured is to change my ‘real’ age from 20 to someone much older. I feel wise in the least pretentious way and armed with enough life knowledge to take on the world. I know I could not have gained this much independence in Corvallis and I doubt I could have achieved it anywhere else in the world. Still, Vietnam taught me that simplicity does not repel complexity, that I can do anything, and, most importantly, that there is a big world out there to explore. “My first internship placement, at Bac Lung Secondary School, was excellent. I love living and teaching there, and I wish I could have stayed the entire time. I felt like I was making an important contribution in the community in allowing the students to learn English from a foreigner when they might not get that chance otherwise. Obviously, having to move and change everything halfway through my internship was not ideal. Since I came to Vietnam expecting to live in the countryside and teach English the entire time, the move to the city, where I could no longer teach, was frustrating. That being said, my experience in Hanoi ended up much better than I could have expected, and I am grateful for the opportunity to go outside my comfort zone living in the city. One of the best parts of my experience was the local buddy system. […] it was invaluable for me to have him (the local buddy) as a support and confidant. My experience would not have been the same without him.

I would highly recommend this internship with ABROADER for my friends or anyone who is interested in doing an IT internship in Vietnam. My IT Internship was done at Global Cybersoft in Ho Chi Minh City, Global CyberSoft (GCS) is a leading global IT solutions provider founded in California. With extensive experiences and rich expertise, GCS poses as a major IT pioneer and trusted partner in Vietnam. The first team I was with (Business Analysis Team) went out of their way to give me responsibilities that challenged me to learn, and provided help for me to learn how to do these tasks, I felt my work on the Business Analysis team was important, and I made a significant contribution as an intern. Next, I was moved to programming team which I felt I did not have as much training compared to the first one. Given that the company was not used to having an intern like me, they did a good job giving me responsibilities that would help me learn. My supervisor was the local team manager and he helped me a lot during work and cared about my well-being. Among many concerns one has when deciding to do an internship, for me, the most important part was having as much help as possible getting into contact with prospective companies, and further set up with a bank account, etc. and felt very satisfied with the services provided by ABROADER concerning these procedures. The most helpful improvement would have been a more timely completion of all the steps so that there is the largest choice of companies to choose from, and one can prepare as soon as possible.

Vietnam, from my experience, is a very work-oriented and relationship-oriented country. You must come prepared to work a lot, learn a lot, and you absolutely must not try to apply the logic or expectation that you would have in the West. This will do little to nothing to help you and will hinder your ability to learn. Come here with the mindset of a student, not an authoritative figure. There is much to learn in Vietnam that will be very valuable to you wherever you work or live, and it is important that you come to Vietnam with an open and unexpecting mind, so that when you go home you will have been able to learn, enjoy and apply your experiences to your future in a positive way. Come to Vietnam with the ability to motivate and add value to people’s lives. Set an example for people, and remember that you are at all times representing you country, university and culture, so make an impression that will stand out as a positive one. Make friends as much as possible and when you can try to study the language as much as possible, even if it is just the language that relates to your job. Doing these two basic things will make living and working here quite enjoyable.