By: Leechen Zhu, CAS ’21 Environmental Sustainability in Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam I faced baskets and baskets of green mangoes. Only green mangoes. I didn’t even know green mangoes of this shape could be ripe. The vendor pointed at each one and rattled off the list of varieties, not that…
By: Shreya Naraparaju, CAS ’22 Business in Sydney – Sydney, Australia If you were to ask any of my friends to describe me, the last word they would probably use is reckless. As someone who doesn’t like taking risks, I always go into any situation with a set plan (in addition to a plan b,…
By: Shaila Lothe, CAS ’22 Social Impact in Buenos Aires – Buenos Aires, Argentina Before my internship in Buenos Aires, I was dreading the idea of eating dinner every day at 9 PM. As someone who normally eats around 6 or 7 PM, I wondered how Argentines went from lunch at 2 PM to dinner…
By: Shaila Lothe, CAS ’22 Social Impact in Buenos Aires – Buenos Aires, Argentina In my time in Buenos Aires, I have started making myself at home. I’ve fallen into familiar routines. For example, each workday around 1 PM, I start making my way to my favorite lunch place. A few blocks away, the owner…
By: Carolyn Chow, CAS ’20 World Medical Association – Ferney-Voltaire, France Besides watches and chocolate, Geneva is reputed for essentially bringing the world together. It’s the location of the second-largest United Nations office in the world, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, CERN, and scores of other international organizations. There is…
By: Felicia Chen, Nursing ’22 Felicia (center) at her internship in Vietnam Friends for Street Children – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam If I could describe Vietnam in one word it would be: flexible. The flexibility of calling motorbikes through three different transportation services and swiveling through the obstructed maze-like roads– unregulated, unquestioned. The flexibility…
By: Anisa Hasan-Granier CAS ’20 Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) – Asunción, Paraguay I come from a mixed background (Pakistani/British on my mother’s side, and French on my father’s). While it can be challenging to balance these sometimes clashing identities, this blend has also given me advantages in terms of adaptability as I have grown…
By: Kathleen Givan, SEAS ’21 Guatemala Health Initiative – Santiago Atitlán Six tips for a beautiful summer in Guatemala: Bring peanut butter Bring enough peanut butter for lunches the first month–but no more. You’ll discover quickly a tough gap between breakfast and dinner…where are you supposed to get your food?? For the first month, a…
By: Xiong Her, GSE ’20 Visiting an elephant sanctuary in Thailand UNESCO – Bangkok, Thailand There are so many amazing moments as I reflect on my experiences, professionally, socially, and culturally, while living and interning with UNESCO in Bangkok, Thailand. For instance, on July 11 and 12, I assisted my team, Non-Formal Education and Literacy, on…
By: Ria Jain, Wharton ’22 Leap Skills Academy Pvt. Ltd – New Delhi, India Growing up, I learned to say “thank you,” and to say it a lot. I say it when a stranger holds the door for me, when a classmate says “bless you,” when a friend asks me how I’m doing, and when…