Students will be able to travel 8,697 miles from Chicago to the city of Ho Chi Minh as part of the new study abroad program in Vietnam beginning in the fall.
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| Photos from Wendy Tran's six week stay in Vietnam. Tran went there through a Loyola program last summer. |
Living in a guesthouse situated in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, Loyola students will be able to take their classroom knowledge to the streets of Vietnam and fully immerse themselves in the country’s diverse culture.
“It’s study abroad outside of the box,” said Amye Day, a study abroad advisor and the Office for International Programs’ contact for the Vietnam program.
During the semester, students will take 12 to 15 credit hours, studying topics revolving around the country’s history, society, culture, economics and politics.
Students are required to take at least three credit hours of Vietnamese language, as well as a class entitled, “The Culture and Politics of Development in Contemporary Vietnam.”
This class promotes students’ service involvement in the local Vietnamese community.
Taught by Rylan Higgins, Ph.D., the Vietnam program director, this course fulfills the Civic Engagement Values Area of Loyola’s Core Curriculum.
Additionally, Loyola students have the option of living with a Vietnamese student who is studying at the University of Social Science and Humanities, Loyola’s partner institution in Vietnam.
“Students leave with practical and everyday understandings of a country and a people,” wrote Higgins via e-mail, adding that service learning and the roommate option have the biggest impact on experiencing day-to-day life.
Higgins was the program director for a Washington, D.C.-based organization’s study abroad program in Vietnam for three years before joining Loyola in July 2009. As a result, he has been able to see the country’s development firsthand. Though he said Vietnam is showing increased global integration and rapid economic growth, he also said that the country faces struggles with growing inequality and environmental degradation; however, he is confident the students studying abroad in the country will have a rich experience.
“Living in Vietnam can be challenging at times for foreigners, but not so much that students feel overwhelmed,” wrote Higgins. “Ho Chi Minh City offers a wide range of the unknown for students to explore, while also providing opportunities for the familiar.”
Linda Ho and Wendy Tran, both seniors, were able to travel to Vietnam for six weeks last summer as part of Loyola’s pilot program. Both Vietnamese-Americans, they were grateful for the opportunity to explore the country where their families had been raised.
“It was my opportunity to see where my parents grew up,” said Ho, 22, a psychology major.
“Vietnam is more than just war. When I think of Vietnam, I think of culture, food and my family back home.”
Freshman Catie Vernon was happy Loyola had initiated the program, but said she has plans to study in Europe instead.
“It’s a good step to take to have that available for people,” said the political science major, “but I think it would be really hard to adapt to their language and culture. I honestly don’t know that much about Vietnam besides the war.”
Both Ho and Tran are quick to promote the county.
“The spirit [of the Vietnamese people] is just so infectious,” said Tran, also a psychology major.
Ho agrees.
“It’s different than Europe, but why not force yourself to be in a challenging environment where you have peers who are experiencing the same thing?” Ho said.
Another plus for many students is the relatively low cost of the program.
“It’s low-cost but big adventure,” said Day. “It’s one of the least expensive ways to study abroad but one of the most rewarding experiences you’ll ever have.”
Freshman English and theatre major, Chris Thoren is already toying with the option of spending a semester in Vietnam.
“In America, Vietnam has been so demonized because of the war, and the American perspective on it doesn’t do the country justice,” said the theater and English major. “It would provide a perspective that history books can’t and one that you can’t gain in an American classroom. There’s no simulation for going to Vietnam.”
