Leadership Development & Doing Business in Vietnam

There are few words that could describe my time here this summer. The time I have spent here has been priceless and life changing, even more than I thought it could be. I learned so much from my nursing internship in Vietnam that will help me very much in my future. However, the life experience I’ve learned, through adapting to another culture, traveling alone to beautiful places and having a sense of home here is something I’ll never forget. The people here have touched my heart, and I’ll have these memories forever. This country, these places and people are beautiful, and I am so happy I came here. It’s inspired me to always follow my dreams, no matter how big they are, and that I can do anything.

I am thankful to God that my daughter had an opportunity to be in Vietnam for 3 months through ABROADER. She stayed with a host family for a month and half and was able to learn a lot about the culture and the food. She loved her host family and misses them. Then she had traveled to Hanoi and worked with ABROADER. The staff was very friendly, caring, and hospitable. After 3 months in Vietnam, I had noticed the changes in my daughter about her outlook of life. She is no longer as much of a picky eater and her compassion and understanding of the Vietnamese people, the culture, and the food has greatly increased. I believe that this experience has helped her grow fast in her journey of life. Thanks ABROADER!!

With the services provided by ABROADER, I felt it was really helpful how they picked me up from the airport and took me to get my accommodations and phone figured out. It would’ve been extremely difficult to try and figure that entire process out on my own. I don’t think there is anything that ABROADER could’ve done better. They gave me all the support I need to get through my Social Work Internship in Vietnam. My Internship in Vietnam was with the Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender – Family – Women and Adolescent (CSAGA), a non-governmental, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the rights of women and children who are vulnerable to violence and discrimination in Vietnam. It was pretty unclear at the beginning what was expected of me, however, I gradually figured out what was needed as the days went on. It was no problem at all. My supervisor was very sweet and so nice to me. She always asked me what I was doing on the weekends, and with my free time, and has offered me advice on different things about Vietnam. I felt that I was given everything I needed to perform my job here at CSAGA. My work seemed to be important to the agency since I did a lot of research for important proposals CSAGA was writing. The host organization had been very helpful and accommodating to anything I needed while here. They always asked if everything was going ok and if there was anything I needed to help make my time here more successful. I don’t think there was anything they could’ve done better.

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.

I feel pretty satisfied with my internship journey as it increased my self confidence and my ability to cope with unfamiliar situations. It also further developed my interpersonal communication skills when working with co-colleagues. I did my internship in Chemizol/Culligan Water Vietnam under the supervision and guidance of Chris, who is a very nice person and always cares about me. Besides that, my internship in Vietnam has expanded my curiosity of the world and at the same time gained a greater understanding of my home cultural identity. I wish I could have more time to go to different factories so that I could contact customers and analyze samples. Overall, my 6-week internship is so great!

The study tour was a fantastic program full of cultural and fun experiences in both Vietnam and Singapore. Before the trip both of these places had been on my travel list, so when the opportunity for this trip came up I couldn't say no and I'm so glad that I did it. The buddies, the people I travelled with and the organisers made the trip even better. Industries in both countries were super helpful and our visits to these factories was one of the highlights. Networking with these companies, the food, cultural exposure, the people and the organisers made it a beautiful way to study our university course!! The most unfamiliar food that I tried was definitely chicken feet! Sugar cane drinks were also unusual but they tasted awesome! Thank you!!!!