Semi-annual Newsletter

COVE
Center of Vietnamese Enterprise
Semi-annual Newsletter
Our mission: To promote educational, cultural and entrepreneurial exchange between US
businesses and students and their counterparts in Viet Nam. To provide cultural, historical, social background information for US businesses.
Also in this issue:
* 2012 Internship in Vietnam is now available for
Business students. Pg.2
* Probe for 3+1 collaborative program with FTU.
Pg 2
* First Study Abroad group
to embark on a Vietnam trip
this summer.
Pg. 2
SPECIAL ARTILCLE: My Vietnam experience—by
Caitlin Worsham.
I landed in Hanoi, Vietnam following a very convoluted series of
events which include but are not limited to a massive hurricane, my sister and her (first) career as a journalist, prolonged and intense exposure
to Red Sox fans, someone else’s photography, and many very cold, impoverished months in Boston. In other words, I came by accident.
Raised in Charleston, South Carolina for the majority of my life, I was
surprised when I went to Vermont at 17 and then to California a year
later and then to Providence to finally get my BA in literature at Brown
and then to New Orleans for my MA in literature at Tulane. I had never
imagined myself as the transient type. I loved Southern literature and
writing and had every intention of becoming a professor. I thought I
would eventually move to a big US city and teach. I was on the right
path, doing everything right.
But it wasn’t enough. My best-laid plans were derailed by the second
major hurricane of my life. Shortly before Katrina hit and the students,
(continue on pg. 2)
* Internship opportunities in Vietnam.
Starting in the 2012 academic year, COVE will provide opportunities for CofC Business students to
participate in the International Internship in Vietnam.
S t u dents
c a n
choose
to do
interns h i p
w i t h
Hong
Leong Bank in Saigon, Yasaka Hotel in Nha Trang,
TDA sheet metal company and VietWood Industries
in Binh Duong, an industrial suburb of Saigon.
Students will not get paid for their work, but it really
does not matter that much because wages are so low
in Vietnam and room and board cost is very low
(about $300/month), the out of the pocket expense is
minimum. If you are interested, please submit a
short resume and either a transcript to be considered.
Please contact Su Frost (frosts@cofc.edu) for more
information.
Rene Mueller is looking into the possibility of a
3+1 program with FTU. Like the 2+2 program, this
new undertaking will require the cooperation among
many faculty and staff from both universities. We
wish Dr. Mueller good luck.
__________________________________________
* First Study Abroad group to Vietnam.
This summer the MBA cohort will embark on a trip
to Vietnam for their Study Abroad. The program is
spear-headed by Dr. Rhonda Mack and Dr. Penny
McKeever with the participation of faculty and staff
from the
Foreign
Trade
University and
several
corporations in
V i etnam. Rumor has it that the group will make a
quick stop in Ha Long Bay, a famous tourist destination, to be on the look out for mermaids. Bon
Voyage!
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
* Special Article (continued from pg. 1)
* 3+1 program probe.
professors and funds designated for my then planned
PhD scattered with the winds, I visited my sister in
Vietnam. So perhaps it lurked there somewhere in
the recesses of my mind — the cacophony, the smell
of grilled pork over charcoal, the lychees and custard apples, the ubiquitous diesel coffee and freshly
brewed beer. But still, it took me awhile. I worked
in Boston as an adjunct for two years, at a college
and university. I was teaching a full course load,
counseling inner city teenage girls in the afternoons
and working nights as a waitress where everyone
except the Nepalese busboy had an MA or higher.
Perhaps it was the workload or perhaps it was my
After the success of the 2+2 collaborative program
in the International Business curriculum between
C o f C
and the
Vietnamese
Foreign
Trade
Univers i t y
(FTU),
D r .
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Photos: (top to bottom, left to right) VietWood jsc, Meeting at Foreign Trade University, Hạ Long Bay
Pg.2
partner finishing his photography degree, or perhaps
it was because I was totally unsure at that point if I
wanted to be a professor anymore, but for whatever
reason, I decided to move. After some very bad and
equally financially depressing ideas, we set our
sights on Vietnam. We had jobs set up working for
the Communist government-run newspaper, writing
what is essentially very overt propaganda for the few
English readers desperate enough to bother with local
news.
It was a strange transition. And not always easy, but
in the end, totally worth it. Over the next 3 ½ years, I
wrote for various publications in various capacities, I
worked as an editor for a luxury lifestyle magazine,
the irony of which was not lost on me. I was an anchor for a pretty terrible English travel show called
Crossing Vietnam. I managed a restaurant. I taught
cocktail making and service skills to servers and
managers all over Vietnam. And finally, after a long
time away from the classroom, I returned. I was introduced to a company called American Education
Group, run by an American and his Vietnamese wife.
With them, I began teaching literature and working
as an education counselor, helping to place all manner colleges or graduate programs across the US.
When
people
ask
what I
do,
I
say with
some
modicum of
nervousness
that
I
guess I am an educational imperialist. I am lucky in
this. I do not teach English. I teach what I wanted to
teach in the US, but under better conditions with better pay and “better” students—better only insomuch
as they are hand selected to work with me. I intro-
duce students to what is expected in a US school system—from ideology to practice. I read books. I talk
about poetry. We argue. We agree.
I work
this job
part
time.
The
rest of
the
time, I
work
on
writing
novels
(though as yet unsuccessfully). Sometimes I think
my life is too easy. That I should be worried about
my work and my career and struggling with mortgage payments and kids like so many of my friends.
But then I sit and I think. This year, between January
and September I will have taken vacations to Bangkok and Phrae in Thailand, to Con Dao in Vietnam,
to Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi in Malaysia,
to Paris and around France, to Italy and to the US
(where I will spend a month with family). I will
have worked around two weeks out of every month.
On a daily basis, I tend to wake up when I please and
go running (albeit with a smog mask) around a lake
two blocks from my house. I buy fruit and fish at the
morning market at the entry to my building’s drive. I
take a motorbike taxi to work and listen to my iPod
as I pass crumbling yellow French villas. I drink
twenty-five-cent beer and practice my Vietnamese. I
enjoy the sun.
When I go back to the US people always say:
“Vietnam, really?” like I’ve lost my mind. The subtext is always: why there? Sometimes I try to explain. Often I do not. There are advantages, after all,
to keeping it a secret.
February ‘11
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Photos: (left to right) Hoàn Kiếm Lake, Vietnamese traditional dress - Áo dàì
Pg.3