#5 - FOCUS YOUR STUDIES, KICKSTART YOUR CAREER


Many studies have shown how study abroad experiences can help students to put their academic program in focus and even realize new professional aspirations. By getting outside the campus, study abroad programs like "Encountering Vietnam" help students to develop their learned skills while coping in a fun, foreign cultural environment, learning how to use language and inter-cultural skills to do everything from finding directions to producing documentaries! The "travel writing" project is especially useful for majors in social sciences as we not only engage in primary research and trips but also discuss in seminars the methodology of interviews and the ethics involved in such work.

Follow Blanca Lopez and Nga's' travel project. 

One reason why this program is especially good for focusing career tracks is that besides visiting amazing places, students get to spend five weeks in a small-seminar setting with many opportunities to discuss research, career ambitions, etc. with each other, with local experts, and with us, the teachers! Co Hong Anh and I have watched many of our former Hue Program students go on to get nationally competitive scholarships, attend prestigious graduate programs, and graduate summa cum laude, like Blanca!, from UCR. Also, many students love their time in Hue and Vietnam so much, they often come back! (I recently caught shots of Blanca with another former student, Jwyanza, on Facebook in Saigon!) 

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#1 - MAKE VIETNAMESE FRIENDS

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Our program is built on a unique collaboration with Hue University where an equal number of Hue students join the UCR students to carry out "travel writing" projects, exploring Vietnam and the old imperial capital, facilitating interviews, and becoming friends . Most study abroad programs emphasize the "tour" but they often provide little opportunity for American students to actually meet and work with local students. This program incorporates the VN-US partnership into the independent study (HIST 190) "travel writing" projects. Friendships are not only fun but can provide meaningful connections for international work in the future. After running "HueStories" four times since 2007, we've seen how many of these friendships LAST!
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#7.5 - XIN CHÀO HUẾ!!!

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#6 - A HIGHLY PERSONALIZED, EXPERT-GUIDED TRIP

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Our Group 2015 - My Intro We have taken over sixty students to Vietnam in four trips, and one thing we've observed with our program compared to others is that our students receive a lot of attention as they get acquainted with the surroundings in Hue. This is especially important  for students who have never traveled outside the U.S.  Because we are a husband-and-wife team and we live at the guesthouse with students, both Co Hong-Anh and I are able to respond to problems, small and big, very quickly. Co Hong Anh, as the program's local resource coordinator, is also instrumental in helping students meet local artists, navigate red tape, and achieve travel-writing dreams! She's a native Vietnamese speaker, however, like many VN-heritage students, she was born in U.S. and grew up with "kitchen Vietnamese" before traveling to Vietnam as a college student. She then worked in Vietnam for six years while I did my PhD research there as well. Combined, we have l
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