Project Intern at Environmental NGO Fighting Climate Change

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.

My experience was very unique in the sense that it was first virtual internship. I was not expecting to have one so I was little sad at first but in the end it was really fun and educational experience. Even though it was virtual, I was engaging with local buddies at Vietnam all the time as if we were friends for the longest time and learning and talking about Vietnamese culture every week. We also had some good events amongst ourselves which I will cherish for a long time. The company I worked at was also great. The supervisor was helpful and communicative for the most time. I learned so much working wise also. What was the most surprising thing you saw or did? Singing happy birthday song in Vietnam was definitely one of things I was not expecting to do!

A Positive International Internship Experience !

I am so appreciative of the ABROADER team for all of their efforts throughout this unprecedented remote internship experience; I felt constantly supported and engaged in the country of Vietnam, even while in a remote setting. While working for an international organization while working from home was inherently difficult/challenging, ABROADER and the Local Buddies made this the best possible experience for all of the interns! I cannot even imagine how wonderful this experience will be for future interns who get to travel in-country with ABROADER for their internships and get to meet all of the wonderful, supportive, and KIND team members.

Overall the people have exceeded my expectations, and they are really what’s going to help make my experience in Vietnam a great one. I’ve always loved leaving my country (the US) and having new experience, so I wanted to do an internship abroad. Having already spent a semester in Europe, I wanted something really different. My mom was born in Saigon and lived there before coming to the United States with her family. So I felt like a good way to get in touch with my culture and my roots would be to spend three months living and working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In my internship in Vietnam, I have helped with various marketing efforts by giving ideas or designing things. I have learned that, of course, there is a different way of doing business here compared to the United States. Things are run differently, there’s a different office culture, there are just always many cultural differences to keep in mind when doing business in a different country, and Vietnam has not been an exception. The people ABROADER have set me up with have been beyond wonderful. Coming to Vietnam on my own seemed very daunting and intimidating, but ABROADER has helped make the transition smooth and seamless. They helped take care of everything I would need during my time here and have gone above and beyond to assure that things continue to go smoothly. I am very appreciative of their support, and it makes the whole thing a little less scary. My local buddies have been so helpful for everything, and I really feel like they are becoming genuine friends. I am generally pretty shy, so it was nice to have friends before even arriving to help introduce me to more people and get me out there. Overall the people have exceeded my expectations, and they are really what’s going to help make my experience in Vietnam a great one.