Cristian is currently working for the US Department of State as a Special Assistant to the Race, Ethnicity, and Social Inclusion Unit for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere. She supports initiatives in the Latin America region that address the issue of discrimination, specifically in Brazil and Colombia. The unit works to address issues of discrimination bilaterally and regionally against traditionally discriminated-against communities, such as Afro-Latinos and Indigenous peoples. The Merage foundation funds provided as a Fellow have been integral for her survival as she transitioned into a new city and started a new professional job as a recent graduate. Without the Merage fellowship , she would have had an extremely challenging and difficult transition in affording basic needs, such as housing and work attire. Also the Merage Fellowship helped her clearly define and organize her American Dream, which has been helpful as she moves forward in her career development as a young professional.

While Long-Co, a Strauss Scholar, did not win a Fulbright grant for Vietnam, she perservered and organized a fundraising banquet. This banquet netted about $20,800 – which means that she will have enough funds to carry out her project: determining the seroprevalence of Hepatitis B and the risk factor of Hepatitis B infection, using a population-bsed epidemiological study in rural, South Vietnam.

We applaud Long-Co’s tenacity and perserverance and wish her the best of luck in Vietnam.

After almost 11 months in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil I must say it is an experience I will never forget.  This past year has been a life-changing adventure.  Immersion into another culture and language has evolved me into a more versatile global citizen.  Living in a Latin American country and taking part of their daily reality has given me the confidence to say that I comprehend that much better their people, culture, and institutions.  I also believe my experience in Brazil has helped me gain a greater understanding of the conflicts and problems they and other countries in the region face.  I believe this study abroad experience has enriched my college experience especially as an International Studies and Political Science double major. Studying abroad in Brazil has allowed me to go beyond the lectures and readings about the region and see it with my own two eyes.  And while ten months ago I felt like an alien from outer space that had landed on another planet, today I walk the streets of Rio de Janeiro feeling like I have become part of their society as well.  Now I enjoy their traditional foods, fruits and juices and Sundays at Ipanema beach.  I look forward to their cultural events, and to the everyday lessons living abroad provides.  Whether its learning a new vocabulary word, a new saying, or a new custom, it is evident that my classroom is my world!  As I conclude the study abroad program I can confidently say that I am fluent in Portuguese.  But as my Brazilians friends most proudly claim, “Cristian you speak with a Carioca accent! You speak with our accent!”  Those are the days that I know I have immersed into the Rio de Janeiro life style.

2nd entry:  

Fulbright SE Asia Conference: About two weeks ago, Fulbright scholars from around Southeast Asia were invited to Manila to take part in the annual Fulbright Mid-Year Conference.  When the Vietnam group stepped into the Shangri-la hotel, our new home for the next week, our jaws were on the floor.  A 360 degree view of the lobby will show you a lounge with sky high glass walls, a live band off in the corner, the entryway  to  a beautiful swimming pool, and then Heat restaurant (hands down the best breakfast/lunch buffet I have ever experienced).   By the way that we were reacting, the other scholars most likely thought that this trip was the first time we had been welcomed back into civilization in months. 

The next day, Fulbright students and scholars from Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines engaged in a multidisciplinary discourse that included both academic and cultural experiences.  The level of excitement in the room far surpassed that which was elicited from us when we saw our accommodations (keep in mind this is coming from someone who has been eating off street carts for the past 7 months, so you know the Conference was good!).  Everyone was genuinely interested in the research that was being conducted within these respective countries, and even more so, learning about these current developments helped us all to understand the progress in our own host nations as well as the region as a whole.  It was truly a remarkable experience, made even better when I crossed paths with a fellow Anteater! 

Before coming to the conference, I had been so entrenched in my work that it had completely slipped my mind that I would have the opportunity to meet our Thailand scholar—Andy Hoang.  It was truly a pleasure to be able to meet with Andy and hear about his current research.  He discussed how social norms in Thailand affect the treatment of children with special needs, which paralleled research he had previously conducted in Vietnam.  

I found Andy’s perspective and research particularly interesting because of an experience that I had a few days before coming to Manila…….. 

My Visit to the Agent Orange Village in Tu Du Hospital: When I had first agreed to teach at HUFLIT University, one of the stipulations that the President and I had agreed upon was that a portion of the money that I earned would be donated to the victims of Agent Orange. As the Chairman of the Board for the Ho Chi Minh City Association for Victims of Agent Orange, he was pushing for me to visit the Tu Du village, which is part of the local hospital.  As the time neared to make the donation and visit the children, I was hesitant to go.  

If you venture around the most populous parts of the city (particularly in tourist hot spots), you are bound to see a person afflicted with physical deformities associated with Agent Orange.  So, one would assume that after an extended period of living in this city, I had seen enough of this to desensitize myself from what I was going to see at the hospital.  Even so, I felt very uneasy about my impending visit.  I was afraid of what I was going to see and how I would react.  On the eve of my visit I continued to mull over the necessity of visiting the site.  Needless to say, I decided that the right thing to do was to go and to face my fears. 

When I stepped into the village area, where about 60 children live, I was greeted with smiles—all of the children were so excited to have new visitors to interact with.  An area approximately the size of the UCI Scholarship office hosted doctor’s offices and beds for all 60 children (ranging from the age of 3-28). 

Some children were bedridden because of the growing tumors and mental disabilities, and others were free to roam around on the floor outside. The first few moments you are in one of their bedrooms, and their reality sets in, your heart begins to sink.   In a country with a healthcare system that is already poor, children with special needs are particularly marginalized (on many different levels).   Not only have many of these children been abandoned by their parents, but to say that their medical treatment and living facilities are subpar would be a major understatement.  Seeing a life in suffering is never easy, the natural reaction is to feel sorry for them.  However, when I interacted with them—I could not keep the smile off my face.  These children were so full of life and just genuinely happy to be playing with my friend and I.  Whatever physical disabilities they had did not obstruct their jovial nature—it was a challenge to keep up with their pace!

 In exploring one of the rooms reserved for older girls, I met a girl named Hong.  I had been tired out by the younger kids and wanted to take a break, so I sat down on the floor and she happened to come up and talk to me.  I found out that she is a student at HUFLIT (the school I am teaching at) and that she will be completing her degree in Information Technology this year, and already has a job lined up as a manager after she graduates.  She lives in the hospital in a small room with about 12 other girls, and when she is not studying for her own schooling, she helps tutor the younger students who are able to attend general school. Every day she drives her motorbike to the university without any special assistance.  Hong has no legs and one functioning arm. 

Finally, I understood what my roommate had told me (she is a fellow Fulbright student working on healthcare reform): to feel sorry for these children would be to undermine everything they have accomplished.  It is truly amazing.    

I am in the process of obtaining permission to volunteer at the village on a weekly basis. 

Now, when I really think about where I want my work to take me…it is not to places like the Shangri-la.  It is to the people that inspire you, like the children of Tu Du village.

2nd entry: I remember when I was first starting M.E.M.O., I was at one of the first fundraising events that I had ever organized, and I was in a cow costume. We needed to draw attention to our booth in a local health fair, and the only logical solution we could think of is to get a cow costume. So I donned my cow attire and started to promote the organization. Of course, since then, we’ve developed different fundraising tactics that raise more money and require less embarrassment, but just thinking back makes me really appreciate applying to the Strauss Scholarship. Not only does the scholarship give you start-up funds to carry out your project, but it also gives you the means to win other grants. The foundation assigns each scholar a mentor from its Board of Trustees who is available to assist you throughout the year. And with the combination of prestige and assistance you get from the scholarship, you will be able to win other grants. I could not even begin to describe how grateful I am for being a Strauss Scholar, especially since a only few years ago, I was looking at my mom’s confused face as she stared at her daughter in a cow suit and said, “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I agreed to put you through a four-year university.”

Since I can’t think of a smooth segue from cow costumes to floods, I’ll just jump right into the second topic of this entry. Flooding is a frequent occurrence in Vietnam’s central highlands. Each time homes are destroyed or damaged; rice and subsidiary crops are inundated; traffic, electricity, and communication systems are disrupted; and people lose their lives or go missing. Being located in Qui Nhon, the students and their families in the Electronic Vocation School must face the storms and its accompanying damages on a yearly basis. Last summer, eight of the students had to take a temporary leave of absence from training to help their families repair damages to their homes and crops. Since then, to prevent homes in the surrounding provinces from getting damaged, our students have designed a device called electro-mechanical sensor. The purpose of this device is to send proper signals to activate the water pumps on the onslaught of a flood before any damages are caused. The students—with the assistance of our teachers—not only designed, produced, and tested its functionality, but also installed the circuit. It is amazing to see, with just a little help, what our students can achieve; they now not only support their families with their new, stable job, but also have made a huge impact on the people living in the area. I can’t wait to see what else they achieve in the future.

Electro-mechanical sensor that the students designed:

2nd entry:  On February 12, 2010, I witnessed the first snowfall to blanket Rome since February 1986 (oddly enough, exactly two weeks before I was born).  The city was in an uproar: banks closed, traffic was at a standstill, children ran from their classrooms to throw snowballs, and in spite of the icy cobblestones, people flocked to the Vatican to catch a rare glimpse of the Piazza San Pietro covered in white.  

And the weekend only got more memorable.  

The following day I hopped on a train from Rome to Venice, where an entirely different sort of uproar had taken over the city: Carnevale!  With several friends I spent an entire day and night wandering the streets of Venice in maschera.  The crowds were packed with people in lavish costumes—among the traditional Venetian masks and gowns we spotted everything from the Ghostbusters to God to the Mario Brothers.  It was incredible to see how much work and creativity was poured into creating these costumes!  When night fell Piazza San Marco and the Rialto exploded with live music and dancing.  This happened to be my second trip to Venice, but only after this experience did I truly understand the city’s wonder and charm.   

After experiencing Venice’s Carnevale, I decided that I wanted to witness a lesser-known Carnevale for comparison.  My curiosity led me to Ivrea, a small town just outside of Torino in Northern Italy.  Ivrea celebrates Carnevale with “La Battaglia delle Arance” (the Battle of the Oranges).  You won’t believe it until you see it.  This battle, representing an uprising of Ivrea’s peasants against their tyrannical overlords in the Middle Ages, takes over the entire town.  People on the ground are members of 9 different teams (my personal favorite being named the “Orange Throwers of Death”); these teams ‘fight’ against some two-dozen horse-drawn chariots that ride through the crowded piazzas.  What ensues is that the people on the ground, pockets filled to the brim, throw orange after orange at the chariot riders, and vice versa.  By the end of the day, I saw many broken noses and fat lips—and the ground was one thick pulpy mess! 

My research in Art History involves a great deal of reading and translating, analyzing drawings and paintings, and spending many hours in libraries throughout Rome.  But I feel as though I’m learning the most from participating in local traditions such as these, which are history in the making.  

1st entry:  It is difficult to put into words the sense of awe I feel daily living in Rome.  The Fulbright scholarship I received for Art History has taken me to parts of the city that few (if any) travelers ever see: national libraries, private collections of rare books, art collections once owned by the most powerful families in Renaissance and Baroque Rome, archives of the academies, and small churches never mentioned in guidebooks.  And my research marks only the beginning of the life I have built here.

I had a rough beginning to moving halfway across the world.  Thinking I had properly notified my banks before going abroad, I traveled without any cash with the intention of using an ATM upon my arrival.  What a mistake!  All three of my credit card accounts froze as soon I tried to use them.  Unable to pay for a shuttle or taxi from the airport, I was forced to take the train to the metro to a bus—with three large suitcases in tow—to arrive at my friend’s apartment in Rome.  Did I mention that escalators and elevators are few and far between in Italy?  It was, hands down, the most stressful traveling experience in my life.

It did not take long for my situation to improve, however.  I quickly found a room in an apartment in Trastevere, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Rome.  Because I also studied abroad in Rome in 2006, adjusting to the Italian lifestyle was fairly effortless for me.  I love living without a car and walking everywhere; I grocery shop every other day instead of once a week; and in place of an enormous latte I drink several shots of espresso throughout the day.  However, I still cannot help but become slightly frustrated when I need to buy something on a Sunday and every shop is closed, or when I find myself in a mob where there should be a queue, or when the bus fails to show up.  But ultimately it is these little moments that teach me patience, so I am grateful for them.  I have been so fortunate to meet a wonderful group of people through the Fulbright network, and I have befriended a group of Italians who integrate me into their local culture.  Dinner parties are never wanting!

One of my favorite things about Italian culture is how much they value conversation and hospitality.  Instead of rushing through meals, they take time to enjoy each other’s company to the fullest.  The best (and longest) dinner I have ever attended was in the company of an Italian family and several friends on the day of a Roma soccer game.  While feasting on our four-course meal straight from mamma’s kitchen, chatting about everything from casinos in Las Vegas to snowstorms in northern Italy, the game was playing on TV in the corner of the room.  The teams—Roma and Juventus—were tied for most of the match, but at the last minute Roma scored the winning goal.  The boys got so excited that the entire table began to shake from their frantic gesturing; wine was spilling, silverware was clattering, and everyone was erupting in laughter!  Thousands of miles away from my own family and friends, I felt so at home.

I spent Thanksgiving at an agriturismo in the Tuscan countryside; celebrated Christmas with an Italian family followed by midnight mass at St Peter’s Basilica; and watched the endless explosions of fireworks in Piazza del Popolo on New Years Eve in Rome.  Long weekends have allowed me to explore numerous Italian towns: Perugia, Cortona, Arrezzo, Bologna, Ravenna, Genoa, Cinque Terre, and Torino.  My wanderlust, ever encouraged by the proliferation of low-cost airlines, has even swept me off to Prague, Budapest, and Istanbul.  Living abroad provides an education unlike any other.  It teaches you how to open your eyes, and heart, to the world.

The first night I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City was an experience that I will never forget.  The moment the sliding glass doors opened and I stepped out of the airport, I was completely overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the city.  Once I managed to get a cab and head to my temporary home, the realization that this would be the next 10 months of my life quickly sunk in. I had lived in Orange County my entire life and Ho Chi Minh City could not be further from the comforts of home.  The stark contrast in terms of infrastructure and severe lack of resources intimidated me and made me question how effective my contributions could really be to this developing country. Staring out of the back window of the cab, watching the swarms of motorbikes weave in and out of traffic, I wondered: what am I doing here?

 The next day, sitting on the concrete floor of my cousins’ living room, I got my answer. I had just met my cousin Chau who is 15 years old and a sophomore in high school.  We were having the standard get-to-know-one-another conversation, until I asked her if she knew what she wanted to do in the future.  She paused for a second, and then explained that her dream was to go to the U.S. and study because she just wanted to learn how to think for herself.  Nothing about what she said was particularly surprising—but the fact that it was not made it that much more poignant in my mind.  Her candid response was a swift reminder of why this research was so important to me in the first place.  There are so many young students who face the same challenges and are simply not being provided the quality of education that they deserve, from both public and private perspectives. 

Since then, I have been working hard trying to realize the initial goals that I set out for myself and my project prior to arrival.  I am currently conducting my research through Dai Hoc Suu Pham, the University of Pedagogy in Ho Chi Minh City and HUFLIT (Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology), where I am a guest lecturer.  Like any research project, implementing my project, a tracer study of successfully employed university graduates, has proven to be both challenging and frustrating. However, each day that I spend here is more rewarding than the last.  Every day I have the chance to be at the forefront of the change that is transforming this country.    Going to international education conferences, hearing from government officials from the Ministry of Education and Training, establishing my own research mentorship program and experiencing a completely different academic culture first hand, are all unique opportunities that I could not experience elsewhere.  I am looking forward to being able to share these experiences with the students of UCI through my entries on this blog.

I have made impressive progress with my language skills and I have definitely met my goal to have colloquial fluency.  There is really no comparison between the language study I have had abroad to the one I had at UC Irvine.  When you study a language overseas, you never leave the classroom because the langauage is everwhere until you go to sleep.   In addition, when studying in-country, the professors are locals and speak to you only in the language being learned.  In the U.S., the professors cannot escape in the very least making comparisons to English.  Studying in-country forces you to learn the language while trying to think in it too.  The most significant difference in studying in-country is that you get outside of the classroom exposure when you go to restaurants, or on a walk, or simply to have coffee with your local friends and you practice it all the time. Thanks to my in-country experience, I can say I have become fluent in Portuguese in the span of six months.

Aside from taking advanced Portuguese as a course, I also took three other courses.  I took Brazilian Foreign Policy, Process of Regional Integration and my Senior Thesis Research Course.  These four courses (including the Portuguese course) add up to a total of 14 hours of class hours per week.  The quality of instruction varies.  The most challenging course with the highest quality of instruction was the Brazilian Foreign Policy course.  However all courses had acceptable quality in instruction.  It is also important to mention that all the coursework, with the exception of the Senior Thesis Research Course, were in Portuguese (literature, writing and lectures).  I have also met my academic goals by taking this coursework.  I have met three of my upper division requirements from my home institution by taking this course load.

I participated in various extra-curricular activities.  I joined a weight training course that was held twice a week to keep my body healthy.  I also joined two non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  These organizations included “Educari” and “College Horizons.”  Educari works with elementry school children who live in the Vidigal favela (slum).  I worked with the eight year-olds and taught them how to speak and write beginning level English. I will continue to work with these children for the second half of my study abroad program.   I also worked with College Horizons where I mentored inter-city favela youth.  These youth are interested in one day visiting the United States and pursuing a degree. 

I am experiencing the local culture by attending various cultural events that are held in the city.  For example, I have attended various schools of Samba where I see firsthand their tradition of dancing samba and how that unites their people.  I have also attended various soccer games since Brazilians love their soccer.  I have also become a regular beach goer as that is a large part of their local culture as well.  Aside from that, I experience their local culture when I go out for coffee or for dinner with my Brazilian friends and when I attend lectures and observe their way of studying and learning.  Brazilian culture is so rich that you cannot help but to find it everywhere you go. 

I use my language skills about 80% of the time.  I use my language skills while I am in class, at the beach, at home, and at any other public place and with my Brazilian friends. 

The most enjoyable aspects of adjusting to the local culture is learning how there is a different way of living that works for a different set of people.  Also adopting new traditions and habits that only make my own life richer, such as how to samba or cook a Brazilian meal.  The challenging aspect of adjusting to the local culture is that unlike American culture, Brazilians prefer doing everything with others around rather than alone.  And at times I wish I had some more privacy.  But that is only a small challenge because I enjoy working with a crowd as well.  What is also challenging is that they enjoy going out a lot and staying in is rather a weird concept for them.  Sitting and reading a book indoors is odd for most Brazilians and that too is a challenge since I enjoy doing that once in a while.

I have enjoyed the most the new things I have learned. I have learned how to be more open to new enviroments, new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking aboout the concept of politics, family and society.  I have learned a new langauge that I consider beautiful, interesting and enjoyably challenging.  I have also gained new connections and friendships that make me a more well rounded global citizen.  I also enjoy Brazil’s  music,  beaches and the whole way of being. 

There are few things that I do not like about my study abroad experience.  The biggest being the large amount of crime and violence that exists in Rio de Janeiro.  There is never a day that I feel safe walking down the streets of Rio.  In addition I do not like the social inequality and racism that still exists here in Rio and in Brazil in general. These negatives are what make me miss home the most where I don’t have worry about how dark my skin is, or how much I am carrying in my pockets or whether I can find others whom I can associate with that are of the same socio-economic status as me.

My name is Long-Co Nguyen and I received the Strauss Scholarship in 2009. As a contributor to the SOP blog, I’ll try to give insight on the process of applying for a scholarship and the experiences the scholarship has offered me. And hopefully, upon hearing about it from a fellow student, any intimidation you may feel will be alleviated (because trust me, if I can do it, you can), or inspire you to apply for a scholarship. 

The first time I ever went to Vietnam was in 2005 with my family. I didn’t know what I expected, but it was definitely not what I actually saw: people walking through sewer water every day when the tide came up, children dying of preventable diseases, dirty water, and not enough food. Since then I joined Me Oi and the Red Cross that operates in Long An. Later, I founded a non-profit organization, Medical Educational Missions & Outreach (M.E.M.O.), to provide healthcare (in the form of yearly medical missions and a program to treat children with congenital heart disease) and educational opportunities (by way of a scholarship program). Then, with the Strauss Scholarship, I was able to do something that I never thought I could: build a school. 

In 2008, I flew back to Vietnam to pass out supplies and repair damages left by a flood in Long An. A few members from the Red Cross and I drove until all traces of urbanity disappeared and damaged huts became visible. Here, there are no more streets that cars can drive through; the rest of the way would have to be either on motorbike or by foot. There was only one motorbike available driven by a guy that looked like Jin from Lost. Unfortunately, my mom had decided to accompany me on that particular trip, and jumped on the back of the motorbike and yelled to the Jin look-a-like, “Đi đi! (Go now!).” And so I was left with the “by foot” option. Now that I look back it was definitely a good thing. I got to do as Will Self, an acclaimed novelist, does and practice psychogeography in a way. And because of that I got to really learn about the people, and consequently, about their needs. One can be well-traveled, but know nothing about where they’ve been. Before when I went somewhere I was in my head along with an imposed mindset about the place. What is needed for a true experience is to couple the mind with the physical world. In this 3 hour walk, I learned more about Vietnam and the people than I have in the last 3 years I’ve visited there. I passsed villagers who were harvesting rice from wet paddies and girls washing dishes in the river. A family that we met on the way offered us coffee. As I sat there talking and drinking coffee with the villagers I learned two things: (1) if given the right influences and opportunities, their sons and daughters that dropped out of school because of monetary reasons to beg and steal on the streets, would instead start to dream about becoming mechanics, engineers, and doctors and (2) with this coffee, I am going to be awake until 2025. What needed to be done, then, was create those opportunities. 

Afterwards, I learned that Intel had opened a hi-tech electronic plant in District 9 of Ho Chi Minh City and that it would need about 4,000 new employees. Besides Intel, there are also many other electronic companies in Vietnam, like General Electric and IBM, that are either in business or about to open. So if a free trade school is built to offer training in electronics, people that are too poor to gain an education and a decent job can acquire the necessary skills for one of these jobs and raise their families out of poverty. Working alongside the Diocese of Qui Nhon and KonTum and Damin Hoang ,we managed to get the building built, obtain the permits, and find qualified teachers. The only thing we needed was equipment. SOP informed me of the Strauss Scholarship which awards $10,000 to implement a public service project. With SOP’s help, I applied and won. Because of this scholarship, the Electronic Vocational School in Qui Nhon was able to officially open on September 9, 2009 with twenty students. And since then, all twenty students have been offered jobs in local manufacturing companies upon completion of their training. And now, interviews for the next class are being conducted and we plan to have 20-30 new students in March. With the Strauss Scholarship, the vocational school will not only make an impactful, sustainable change in these students’ lives, but will also change the lives of many future students to come.