Location
  • Vietnam
Term
Fall, Short Term, Spring, Summer
Subject Areas
Asian Studies Business Communications Cultural Studies Earth Sciences Ecology Environmental Studies Global Studies Graduate Studies International Relations Political Science Social Sciences Sustainable Development +3
Merit-based funding

Program Details

Program Type
Direct Enrollment
Degree Level
Bachelors Masters
Housing
Apartment Host Family
Language
English
Jun 29, 2022
Nov 26, 2019
14 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Embark on a transformative journey and engage with global sustainability challenges in Vietnam, a country celebrated for its commitment to sustainable development.

Study six vital entry points for successful transformations towards sustainable development and learn about the complexities and interlinkages of the SDGs. They include human wellbeing and capabilities, sustainable and just economies, food systems and nutrition, energy decarbonization and universal access, urban and peri-urban development, and global environmental commons.

The program is delivered in a sequence that builds from theoretical understanding to practical, hands-on experience, using a variety of experiential and community-engaged learning elements.

In the process, you will develop the eight core competencies of global change leaders.

Video and Photos

Impact

GEI’s work explicitly supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a plan of action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. At its core, it focuses on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of critical importance for humanity and the planet. We share the 2030 Agenda’s vision of a sustainable world – a world where all people can live productive, vibrant and peaceful lives on a healthy planet. Our purpose is to unleash the catalytic impact of international education, engagement, and exchange to address key challenges set out by the SDGs. To do so, we blend research, education, training, and innovative practical solutions that support transformations toward sustainability.

Program Highlights

  • Interdisciplinary learning: Experience how different sustainability issues intersect and reinforce each other through an integrated curriculum.
  • Field-based insights: Participate in excursions and projects that showcase Rwanda's leadership in sustainability, from human wellbeing to sustainable economies, nutrition, energy decarbonization, sustainable urban planning, and the global environmental co
  • Community impact: Work on projects that not only enhance your learning but also contribute positively to local communities.

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GEI Vietnam

Embark on a transformative journey and engage with global health challenges in Vietnam, a country celebrated for its innovative and efficient approaches to public health. Study six core modules that cover key thematic aspects of global health - the global burden of disease and determinants of health, local health systems, global health governance, infectious diseases, mental health, and maternal and child health.

GEI Vietnam

This interdisciplinary global practium immerses students in practical global health work through group placements with a host organization in Vietnam. Students address a specific global health challenge by designing and implementing impactful solutions, tailored to their disciplines, level of study, and existing skills. Each Friday, the students come together for a class colloquium and reflection session, as well as cultural activities.

Program Reviews

4.71 Rating
based on 7 reviews
  • 5 rating 71.43%
  • 4 rating 28.57%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Academics 4.6
  • Support 4.75
  • Fun 4.75
  • Housing 4.75
  • Safety 5
Showing 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Default avatar
EIlen
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Vietnam

This spring I had a fantastic time an intern/student in Vietnam with GEI for 3 weeks. Very smooth experience. The staff at GEI are committed to providing an easy transition and I felt very safe in their hands. They picked me up from the airport and coordinated the travel between various districts very thoroughly. They were really good about making sure I was having an educational but still fun and immersive time in places like Hi Chi Minh and Hue. The itinerary was clear and I felt like I had time in each place to learn enough, but still have a really good mix of different contexts.

I loved the mix of classroom and service learning at various district hospitals and care centres. It felt more meaningful than just volunteering, since we got to work closely with Vietnamese colleagues in order to meet their community needs. I really feel the staff and patients at the hospitals were so welcoming! The hands-on side of things was a massive help in developing practical skills in a cool setting. I had also never done storytelling as part of a public health course, so that was certainly unique. I learned a lot about infection prevention and day-to-day operations of medical facilities in different areas of Vietnam, in a way that complemented my own university education. It was interesting to compare the national health frameworks between Canada and Vietnam. Getting to talk to and work with people in the community was an invaluable experience and I really felt I learned a lot—not just about public health but about life in Vietnam.

The immersion and cultural trips were incredible. I loved the mix of trips relating to Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese nature. The food was amazing!! I really enjoyed how we got to eat some meals with local families. All in all, a great immersive experience.

99 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
E
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Vietnam

This spring I had a fantastic time an intern/student in Vietnam with GEI for 3 weeks. Very smooth experience. The staff at GEI are committed to providing an easy transition and I felt very safe in their hands. They picked me up from the airport and coordinated the travel between various districts very thoroughly. They were really good about making sure I was having an educational but still fun and immersive time in places like Hi Chi Minh and Hue. The itinerary was clear and I felt like I had time in each place to learn enough, but still have a really good mix of different contexts.

I loved the mix of classroom and service learning at various district hospitals and care centres. It felt more meaningful than just volunteering, since we got to work closely with Vietnamese colleagues in order to meet their community needs. I really feel the staff and patients at the hospitals were so welcoming! The hands-on side of things was a massive help in developing practical skills in a cool setting. I had also never done storytelling as part of a public health course, so that was certainly unique. I learned a lot about infection prevention and day-to-day operations of medical facilities in different areas of Vietnam, in a way that complemented my own university education. It was interesting to compare the national health frameworks between Canada and Vietnam. Getting to talk to and work with people in the community was an invaluable experience and I really felt I learned a lot—not just about public health but about life in Vietnam.

The immersion and cultural trips were incredible. I loved the mix of trips relating to Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese nature. The food was amazing!! I really enjoyed how we got to eat some meals with local families. All in all, a great immersive experience.

94 people found this review helpful.
My PP
Koray
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Tôi thích vú sữa! (I like star apple!)

Being part of GEI Vietnam crew on January was a thrilling experience overall. As I come from Turkey, a country culturally different than Vietnam in many ways, I was stoked to be there working with Vietnamese colleagues throughout. I would define the uniqueness of GEI Vietnam experience in a single word "eye-opening" in terms of its cultural interaction, international management and permanent influence features.

In academic terms, the program allowed me to learn how to manage International colleagues with different cultural dimensions. Working with Vietnamese participants helped us discover that we would need to adapt and adjust to a new business environment we faced. As we worked on the project, we were quite astonished by how Vietnamese do business, how much their communication manners differ and what priorities they do give to certain traits, as such Vietnamese value on formal greetings.

I would define the GEI Vietnam experience as influential, mainly because we had a tangible effect on an environment we would never have a chance to influence as individuals . As "influencers", we assessed the feeling of embrace and empathy for Vietnamese culture and society. GEI Vietnam experience was a like real life experiment, in the sense that we had the chance to observe how Vietnamese live, what they do in daily life and what they value. We watched a Vietnamese football match with our colleagues, did karaoke (pretty big thing in Vietnam!) and had some quality local food. I would say my favourite memory was celebrating the achievement of Vietnamese football team, who got 2nd in Asia Cup. We spent the whole night on the streets after the match, with flags and banners in our hands and rejoiced with Vietnamese crowd. The moments when we had high-fives with motorbikes passing by and seeing their smile on their face were quite emotional and timeless for me. As a result of 2 weeks with unique memories and challenges, I would certainly recommend this experience as a life-time opportunity to broaden one's mind.

What would you improve about this program?
Everything was well-organized, thanks for all the effort!
96 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Kerimcan
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Climb and Solve Much More Enjoyable with GEI

I have attended the Business Consulting Vietnam Program when I was in semester break. The program brought me a new perspective which makes this experience unique. I noticed that people are social animals different than other species who are able to communicate effectively and build an ecosystem by using common language that we defined with trust between each other so the cooperation can take place without the need of any strict control mechanism even they don’t know each other very well. In a very small period, I and my Vietnamese friends handle the situation about one of the company (TS24 Corporation) whose customer is Vietnamese Government.

GEI gave us the main objective, topic, we analyzed the problem based on the GEI’s fundamental perspective and the information that we took from them. In the first few hours Coralie from GEI, help us to build a safe environment for all of the participants in the program which was excellent and very fun. When we get the background for the general conditions in Vietnam especially for developments in IT sector, we started to become deeper for our topic which is about the “Big Data”.

Next week, the topic is changed because we don’t have a deep IT knowledge to fix the coding problem by using a specific application. Then the project become almost a conducting their marketing strategy based on the few assumptions. The most moving part was we never lost our motivation, willingness to cooperate and effective organization with our Vietnamese friends and lastly we made it.

I was expecting the program will focus on service learning project but it was not a direct service learning Project which focuses on directly to the society and let us find out the real need of them. Instead, the problem was determined and there will be a positive effect on the society in a longer term. For a better and more effective process, we also shaped the problem according to the TS24 Corp’s needs. We practiced several transdisciplinary methodologies and methods more than I expected like Design Thinking. I believe, design thinking process was very interesting and also beneficial. We defined our objectives, stakeholders map process map, work plan which makes us clearer and more comfortable. Before the program I was not aware of shaking hands has a pivotal role for convincing people and also I was not expecting to learn the right way of shaking hands but Coralie taught us how to shake hands and proved it by real-life examples and videos. Vietnamese friends are more open-minded, friendly, respectful, smiling than I expected.

Vietnamese friends taught me many new things and they shared their culture and they make the project process funny. Vietnamese people are very smiling, respectful, excited and they can make empathy. In our leisure time, we usually went and explored new places like restaurants, museums, touristic places. My friend Huy became my new brother and we have a very close friendship with him. At the weekend we have gone to Mekong Delta and my roommate was Huy. He was very energetic and hospitable the whole time in Vietnam. He also bid farewell to me into the airport. Apart from that, my Vietnamese friends made me feel like living in my hometown Turkey. Luckily, we also watched Vietnam young national football team’s football match together with Huy and Vietnamese people in Mekong Delta. The team firstly participated Asian Championship and even they lost in the final, millions of people include me and Huy celebrated the huge success by dancing and shouting for the national team as if Turkish National Team get the European Championship.

What would you improve about this program?
We couldn't use the articles that we read before coming to Vietnam. Maybe the articles and other stuff could be more related to the project process.
111 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Huy
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Study abroad, explore, discover and learn

In early 2018, I luckily took part in a Consulting Abroad Program, organized by GEI. It was such an incredible and amazing experience for me.

During the program, participants were given real challenges faced by a Vietnamese company in the technology field. Even though it turned out to be very complex in comparison with student abilities, we tried our best to brainstorm and find where the inner problem lies. Because of the difficulty, we were pushed to learn as much as we can. We were fuelled with informative and interactive series of lectures that were very helpful to our proposed project. For example, we had a session on Big Data and its impact in the Vietnamese digital sphere. This gave us the opportunity to better understand and visualize business opportunities for our tech-company.

Besides this technical knowledge, the program gave me a precious chance to build relationships with cool friends and enhance my soft skills. With honesty, openness and respect, we quickly got to know each other and grow friendship. Every day we worked closely in teams, constantly researching, discussing and trying our utmost to come up with feasible solutions for the company. Each member was a critical thinker so I had to persuade them, sell my ideas and also listen to others’ opinion. I was really impressed by the way my international friends respond to (cultural) differences with respect and simplicity.

I know that communicating effectively in a multicultural environment is a key to success for global future leaders. With this in mind, I always tried to keep my mind open so that I could discover new insights and perspectives. As a result, I could feel that my mindset and communication skills were gradually progressing.

Furthermore, we had many fun activities to relax, get to know each other and share valuable time together. We exchanged a lot about our culture, tried to speak each other’s language and gently pointed out differences between typical Western versus Eastern behaviours. Hence, we became more understanding and respectful of diversity.

Overall, the time flew so quickly by but the experience has helped me to become more aware of the world’s diversity and thus be more open-minded, able to adapt to various environments and to meet great and interesting people. Most importantly, I learned to step out of my comfort zone and enjoy it. I have the feeling that this was a turning point of my life. I am so thankful to GEI and my international friends for giving me such a great chance to broaden my horizons and create unforgettable memories.

109 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Phuong
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

GEI’s Consulting Abroad Program in Vietnam

GEI’s Consulting Abroad Program in Vietnam was a life-changing experience. Our assignment to do market research for an IT company was much more than just a project. GEI enabled us to study and practice “design thinking”, a comprehensive and creative approach to identifying and solving business challenges. Working on real problems of a real company helped us to improve many skills, including problem-solving and working in a team. I particularly also enjoyed the social interaction with our new international friends. We were also able to share our culture, food and history, explored temples, museums and flea markets together, and even celebrated the new champions of Vietnamese football. I strongly recommend joining this program!

119 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
christene
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Nurse practitioner

The HBB program delivery in Vietnam with the GEI team(Patty Kelly and Vivian) was an excellent experience. It was very well organized and the program delivery method worked well for the targeted audience who participated. Team members on the delegation all worked well together delivering the program cohesively and professionally. It was a truly unique and inspiring experience to work with the local providers in the centers we visited. Watching the local participants as they progressed through the course and absorbed the HBB info was transforming! I would do another trip with GEI in a heartbeat!! Well done!

What would you improve about this program?
It would have been nice to have at least one day to practice as a team in providing the HBB program with the delegates(who have never done a program) before actually doing a HBB program for the providers. It would be helpful to tour each newborn facility before an HBB program is provided so delegates can have an understanding of the facilities available
104 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers