A Life-Changing Experience

A Life-Changing Experience

Nick working at Cedar Point

A Life-Changing Experience

Lenka from Chenz Republic who sometimes work with Esther (on the right) in the employee center

A Life-Changing Experience

Esther posing with her bosses who awarded her the Cornerstone pin

A Life-Changing Experience

Nick at Times Square, New York


Life-changing experiences for the average Malaysian undergraduate can come in many forms. Thus, two UCSI University undergraduates from the School of Mass Communications experienced first-hand how their participation in the Work and Travel (WAT) programme to the United States became a life-changing experience for them.

Both Esther Chin Li Yie and Nick Seah, with support from their families and the encouragement of Ken Choong, their UCSI University Mass Communications lecturer, took the brave step to fly half-way around the world to work in a different environment and culture for five months.

Esther said, “It was a very easy process signing-up for this programme. I attended the talk given by personnel from Out of the Box, who are the co-ordinators of this programme, filled up a few forms, chose my employer in the US (Cedar Point Amusement Park, Ohio), attended a simple interview and a few briefing sessions,  and got my Visa."

Nick agreed that it was a breeze to join the programme, and that the perception of many that Malaysians find it difficult to get visas into the US was a myth. His own perception was debunked with his own easy enrolment into the work and travel programme.

Both agreed that they were first attracted by the fact that they could work and earn money in US dollars, travel the continent after, and still have funds left over to bring home.

"The thought of experiencing and understanding a foreign culture, and being responsible for myself for the first time in my life while staying half a world away from my family came second in my money-minded mind,” Esther frankly confessed.

Esther’s first encounter on the difference between the Asian and US culture was when she ordered a glass of warm water during her first meal and the waitress gave her an odd look, since it was then summer.  An American friend informed her later that Americans do not drink warm water in the summer: hot beverages yes; not warm water.

Both Nick and Esther also took time to understand the usual terminology and American accents their co-workers and new-found friends used. Nick said, “In the beginning, I really had to listen carefully to understand what they meant. Slowly I began to develop an accent of my own. Strange, but true."

Esther described her adjustments to accustom herself to a world where Kleenex means tissue paper, Qtips (do you mean Qtips? Not OTips? ) means cotton buds, and where the word “gay” replaces the word “lame”.

In addition, having people drive on the opposite side of the road, strangers walking past, smiling at you for no apparent reason, further added to her bewilderment. Although she found it rather disconcerting at first, she soon embraced the practice herself and adjusted quickly thereafter.

Both these UCSI University students said, that they were not homesick despite being so far away from the comforts of home because they had found new friends, and work to occupy most of their waking hours. Work was from 9.30 a.m. until 10 p.m. with an hour’s break in the middle. Cheap IDD cards and low calling rates on Voice over Internet Protocal (VoIP) lines enabled regular and constant contacts with family and friends back home in Malaysia.

Food was not a problem as Asian groceries such as Chinese “tau foo”, soya sauce and Indian curry powder were easily available. Nick said that his flatmates regularly cooked dishes with rice since most of them were from various parts of the Asian-Pacific.

Both students showed exemplary work and leadership skills, with Nick being promoted to be the Team Leader soon after his first month there. By the second month, he had been promoted to Unit Supervisor. Esther also received the Cornerstone Pin which was given to employees who best served their guests’ needs. It was equivalent to a Best Employee award.

When they returned home from the US, friends were eager to find out about their experiences.

Esther said, “I told my friends how privileged I was to have for friends among my co-workers who came from Taiwan, Bulgaria, Colombia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Singapore, China, Japan, Romania and the Czech Republic. My experience at the US showed that I did not have to be a different person to be accepted: I just needed to stand by my values and to see beyond the colour of a person’s skin or hair. I also needed to consciously find common grounds on whatever differences that I might have with others."

"Many of my Malaysian friends did not join the programme as they did not want to be the first to go. Some of them cited money and time being the issues as they would be away for at least half a year,” said Nick.

He empahsised that the programme did encroach on some of his academic study time; but what he gained on inter-cultural understanding, and the wealth of experience: working and managing an international community of staff which only high-flying executives in multinational companies ever get to experience, far outweighed the disadvantages.

Thus, Nick and Esther are enthusiastic that more undergraduates should take time off to emulate what they had done. They are thankful that their lecturers and UCSI University had granted them time off from their studies to join the programme. Looking into the future, Nick said he will finish his degree in Mass Communications at UCSI University soon and hopes to join the graduate work and tour programme on graduation.

Esther, with her new found understanding of the US, its people and its culture, intends to move to the United States to complete the final two years of her Mass Communications degree. UCSI University, through its International University Pathway Centre, helps students to transfer their credits for overseas study.

Said Ken, “Both the students’ experiences are reflective of UCSI University’s forward looking and liberal approach in encouraging students’ experiential learning and enabling them to explore the world on their own initiatives and returning to UCSI University further enriched by their exploratory sojourns."

He added, “At UCSI University, this is our mission:  to mould students who are not afraid to take on the world on their own and have life-changing experiences as turning points of their lives for a better future.”
     
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