I'm an Intern!

I know, I know I’ve been really awful about updating this thing. And again, it’s not because nothing interesting is happening, it’s just that I’ve been just plain lazy about it.

I do have one small update that I think is pretty neat!

Since I’ve been out here, I’ve been thinking a lot about my future (as if you hadn’t noticed). The longer I am in Vietnam the more I have come to solidify my desire to work as an advisor at a University or non-profit either with international students, or as an advisor or coordinator of study abroad programs.

So, a few weeks ago I went online to do some research into educational/cross-cultural non-profits in Hanoi. I was interested in perhaps volunteering for a few hours a week so I can gain some experience in the field of international education. Amazingly enough I found The Institute for International Education of Vietnam – perfect! Even better was that I was in the middle of reading the director’s book Vietnam Today: A Guide to Nation at a Crossroads. I do believe in omens, I really do, and I definitely took that as a good sign. I noticed on their website that on October 9^th they were going hold a U.S. Higher Education Fair with about 55 US colleges and Universities and that last year over 6,000 people attended. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to help out.

I updated my CV and emailed the director to express my interest in volunteering with the institute. Hours later he returned my email and asked me to meet with him that following Monday. That was about 3 weeks ago, and since then I have been working as an “intern” with IIE. So far I have done two days of interviewing volunteer interpreters for the college fair and two more days of training those volunteers. The fair is this Thursday and it just so happens to pan out that I don’t have to work at the time of the event, so I am able to attend and work as an advisor at my own table! How awesome is it that I am actually going to get real experience doing the thing that I would like to do as a career?