For 10 students at Georgetown University in Qatar, the study of economics, history, finance and culture took a personal turn with a recent trip to Vietnam as part of the university’s Community Engagement Programme (CEP). Theoretical study was crystallised through an intensive schedule of activities that spanned 12 days and covered a wide range of development themes.
The trip began in the capital of Hanoi, where students met representatives from Asian Development Bank, the lead economist of the Vietnam branch office of the World Bank, and key members of the Vietnamese leadership, and concluded in the province of Thai Binh, where students laid bricks shoulder to shoulder with a Vietnamese family and learned that building a house means much more than building a structure. Highlights of the trip also included a visit to a women’s museum, and to the bustling central wholesale market, where students interacted with local merchants while conducting a survey of their opinions on local economic conditions.
“It is critical that future leaders go beyond the classroom to understand the reality of social issues, development, and the impact of the past on the present, and the projections for the future,” said Georgetown’s dean, Gerd Nonneman.
“The Community Engagement Programme, which is unique to the Qatar campus of Georgetown, encapsulates our approach to experience-based education, by integrating rigorous academic study with well-informed, hands-on engagement with communities from around the globe. We know from experience that these are transformative experiences that have a lifelong impact on our students.”
This is the first time the programme has sent students from Doha to Vietnam, with previous areas of study and travel including Jordan, China and South Africa.
“We chose Vietnam specifically because it is an interesting case study for our students studying emerging economies,” said Uday Rosario, Georgetown’s community engagement coordinator, who accompanied the students along with two other members of Georgetown faculty on the trip.
“This is a country that was once touted as the poster child of development, but has since encountered some challenges to that trajectory. On this trip, students got to see live examples of the economic and political models they’ve studied in class that tie into the development successes, as well as the challenges Vietnam is facing.”
Following their return to Qatar, several students involved in the CEP expressed the most surprise at the difference between studying Vietnam in terms of its horrific wartime experience and being introduced to a Vietnam that is focused on forgiveness and looking ahead to a better future.
For International Politics junior Mohamed Sirelkhatim, “Studying theoretical models of economics isn’t always very interesting. But seeing how political decisions affect economics, and in turn, society, you see the true value of that education.”
The Peninsula
