Faculty-Led Program in Vietnam with Abroader

Having the buddies there showing us where the locals go and translating things for us and just generally hanging out with us really made the trip for me. Something small like booking a soccer field for us to have a muck-around game was really well received but we wouldn't have been able to do that without the local buddies. The buddies really understood us and what we enjoy doing and catered for us throughout the trip. Even when we went across the country, out buddies from Saigon put us in touch with some more buddies in Da Nang. We were taken to some amazing local restaurants and food stalls, some historical monuments and even went on a weekend retreat away to the Mekong. The local buddies also gave us introductory language and local customs lessons at the start of the tour which was extremely useful.

Study tour abroad to Vietnam was a unique and excellent experience. The expertise and knowledge from our Lecturer James Welsh was second to none, our tutors Roxy & Phuong were great assets for delivering content.
Local experience and activities were culturally enriching as we had local buddies take us to both tourist attractions as well as more local hot spots around Vietnam.

Overall this experience was life-changing. The local buddies were fantastic and I hope that I have made friends that I can stay in contact with for life.
Having a local buddy for each pair of us students was great and gave the opportunity for use to really get to know them if we wanted to make the effort.
Our local program coordinator was fantastic, a great facilitator and made the whole thing quite effortless. We had several local industry factory tours and a few times she had to step in as a translator and was able to pass on the information without a hitch.
I loved the program and I very much miss the people over there. I hope to visit Vietnam and the friends I've made over there again in the near future. Thank you so much to Abroader for organizing everything.

I really enjoyed how emersive the Vietnam-leg of our study tour was. The buddies were a great bunch of people who went above and beyond to make our time in Vietnam so special. Ngan was especially great, and organised the relatively crazy group very well. I enjoyed all the dinners and party's we had, from the welcome dinner to the year-end party, as well as the networking night and the farewell dinner. These events were organised so well and were particularly good for meeting new people and making different friends even within our own study group. It was also great to see the buddies come along to our industry visits and often translating for us at lunch or even in the factories.
We had excellent days held by the buddies, where they took us on an amazing-race type tour of Ho Chi Minh city, where we saw local sights and museums.
My favourite parts of the tour was the trips to the tunnels from the Vietnam war and the trip to the primary school for the volunteering day. At the tunnels, it was very interesting to experience a small taste of the area and nature of warfare for the Viet Cong and to crawl through the tunnels like in the war.
The kids at the primary school were very welcoming and treated us like rockstars! By far the most fun and humbling experience of my life. It was amazing to see how to people of different ages, from different cultures and who spoke different languages could communicate through drawings, actions and soccer. Hope that more people can experience the welcoming nature of the Vietnamese children.

The three weeks that I spent in Vietnam gave me a unique insight and greater appreciation into the world around me. Going to Vietnam has made me value the things I take for granted in Australia, such as just being able to drink clean water from the tap. I discovered that the people of Vietnam are so generous and forgiving. I made many new friends during the study tour and learned a course all whilst touring a great country. The study tour was very enjoyable and I had lots of fun along the way with the activities planned by the local buddies. The course itself was interesting and I genuinely enjoyed the content, despite it being so condensed into a few weeks. My advice for students wanting to go on the SE Vietnam study tour would be to just enjoy the trip while it lasts and take as many photos as possible, because the time goes so quick. A huge thank you to all the organisers of the trip and to the local buddies for making this trip possible and the best it could have been.

Really enjoyable trip. The local
buddies made it a fun and
exciting few weeks, it was truly
an unforgettable experience.

Everyday was a adventure with
something new to explore. Not a
single day in Vietnam was
boring. I would definitely
recommend this to other
students as it is a once in a life
time opportunity. Cannot thank the local buddies and organisers enough.

A wonderful experience and so glad i participated in the program.
The program was structured in a way that flowed nicely, however more free time to prepare for the quizs would have been nice but i know Tet was a deciding factor this year.
This was an interesting experience overall being a big bloke as it turns out Vietnam is not built for tall people lol but i survived and was very happy to have experienced everything.
Have to finish out the character limit so ill just fill it up with random letters.

The greatest challenge for me during the program was overcoming difference in opinions of the program participants but I appreciate the program coordinator and local buddies’s effort to listen and be open-minded when our discussions got deep. The local buddies and program coordinator were honestly the best part of the program. Not only were they helpful and informative, they were also welcoming and caring. I really appreciate their effort to listen and accommodate our needs, showing us everything they could around the city, taking us to food places and always available whenever problems arise. I encourage you to do your best to get to know them all because they really make the experience, I truly think that a friend abroad of 5 weeks can be just as important and impactful as a friend I’ve known my whole life.

To describe how the Study Abroad trip in Vietnam taught me, your acquaintances became your best friends, including your lecturer. You experience actually living in a country and exposed to it culture, not just there on a holiday. Besides, the several industry visits give you a new perspective into your everyday products, after knowing the design and manufacturing process. It was an overall great learning experience both academically and culturally to have been able to live and study in Vietnam for 3 weeks

There were a wide variety of personalities and students but the Program Coordinator did an amazing job of relating to each and every person. The program and local buddies were very open-minded and provided me with an authentic and enjoyable medium to interact with the local culture. They made the transition to Vietnam easy. All there cultural activities were diverse and fun; the Vietnamese Cooking day was another highlight because it gave us the experience of buying groceries at a local market and making food that we could call our own. The Community Day was by far the best experience because it allowed us to serve a population that is so often overlooked.

The local buddies and program coordinators did an outstanding job and made us feel very safe and welcome in every aspect; they went beyond their required responsibilities to make the study and travelling period in Vietnam memorable and fun experience. This trip is a unique experience to make new friends, experience different cultures and broaden one’s perspective. It is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The greatest challenge for me during the program was overcoming difference in opinions of the program participants but I appreciate the program coordinator and local buddies’s effort to listen and be open-minded when our discussions got deep. The local buddies and program coordinator were honestly the best part of the program. Not only were they helpful and informative, they were also welcoming and caring. I really appreciate their effort to listen and accommodate our needs, showing us everything they could around the city, taking us to food places and always available whenever problems arise. I encourage you to do your best to get to know them all because they really make the experience, I truly think that a friend abroad of 5 weeks can be just as important and impactful as a friend I’ve known my whole life.