A Little Background

I figure that I should write a post about the application process and what got me to this point before I get into the more exciting stuff next month!

The Carolina Southeast Asian Summer (SEAS) Program is a unique program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is only for first-year students only (going into their second year), so that the students can come back with time to pursue the interests that are sparked by this program, whether that be a new language, major, or more time abroad. Additionally, the trip is fully funded for the 25 students that are selected to go on the trip! It is really a fantastic opportunity

I began my application in early January and it was due on February 2nd. The application included several short answer questions about general study abroad topics, as well as a long essay. The long essay asked the students to read a Southeast Asian newspaper for a week and pick a topic that you felt the SEAS participants needed to know more about. Then, it asked us to design an activity so that SEAS participants could learn more about this topic. I choose an article about dance in Southeast Asia and designed several activities to expose the students to dance styles of the area. I hope that I actually get to do some of those activities; I thought they sounded pretty exciting, but that may be because I designed them.

I never expected to actually get accepted to the program just because I had always heard about how competitive it was. I was planning to look for a job for the summer when I got the email that I had been selected for an interview. I was ecstatic, but still skeptical at my chances of getting chosen, especially after the interview was over. I thought it didn't go very well; I felt like I was not giving them the answers that they wanted. "Oh well", I thought. "At least I tried".

However, to my surprise, two days that I got an email that said "Welcome to SEAS". I almost fell down the stairs of Phillips as I was walking out of my physics lab because I couldn't believe that it was true. I was actually going to Singapore and Thailand for a summer! The furthest I had ever been overseas was on a cruise to mexico and the bahamas with my high school dance team. A million things were racing through my head at once.

Since then I have attended a wonderful orientation session at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Rizzo Center, as well as the picnic mentioned in the previous post. I am so excited because the next event is my plane ride from Dallas to New York, New York to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Singapore!

SEAS Picnic 2012

I just got back from the annual SEAS picnic! This year the picnic was at the Horace Williams House, which is just a little walk off campus. I got to sit at a table with fellow SEAS participants for this year as well as some of the 2011 SEAS participants. We had a wonderful meal catered by a local Singaporean restaurant called Merlion, which is in Chapel Hill. I will have to go there sometime, because the food was delicious! I am definitely going to have to start getting more acquainted with Asian food; all the sauce choices scare me. The desert was really unique, but tasty! It was really fun to chat with the past SEAS participants about there experience. They had a lot of great tips about packing, what to do for fun, and how to manage school, among other things.

The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences spoke to us about the uniqueness of the program as well as how the program is helping to spark greater interest in Asia for many of the students that attend. The numbers for Asian studies majors has significantly increased in the last ten years! Next, the donor spoke about why they started the program and how we should approach it. He suggested that we do things on our own and don't just stick to all the westernized activities and foods. While he did have good advice for getting immersed in the culture, I don't think my parents would appreciate it if I didn't call them the entire time!

Afterwards, all the SEAS participants for this year went into the house and the donor and his wife spoke to us again. His wife, Barb, told us to be really careful not to uphold the nickname "Ugly Americans" that americans sometimes get while traveling because they are often not aware of the culture and are more individually focused. She also spoke about representing the University, and America as a whole, well so that the program can continue to thrive. It was so great to meet the donors, they were very friendly and had really great ideas (that I hadn't heard before) about really making the most of the experience. I wish that I had gotten to speak to them personally, and thank them for their generous contribution.