Those who make the argument that school is boring would have a hard time convincing Capilano University Squamish campus students Jase Wilson and Kyla Derkach.
The duo will be travelling across the world to help provide practical tourism training to help two small communities in the Sapa region of Northern Vietnam reduce poverty, improve their quality of life, and help provide sustainable authentic cultural and nature based experiences for visitors to their communities.
It's all thanks to a Capilano University initiative, with funding provided by both the university and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Foundation. The school is also working with Hanoi Open University to deliver the training on the ground. Both Wilson and Derkach are thrilled with the opportunity.
"Needless to say, I was pretty excited to be chosen and honored really," Wilson said. "There were a lot of really qualified people that weren't accepted for the project in terms of a funded position. So I guess I felt that all of the hard work and effort I put into studying hard had paid off and just feel very fortunate for the opportunity to represent my university abroad."
"I was excited," Derkach said. "There were three stages to the interview process. Firstly, we had to submit an application of interest, which included filling out an application form and writing an essay about why we should be chosen. Second, we were required to attend a group interview where all the students who were shortlisted participated in. This was, for the most part, to see how we interacted in the group. After being shortlisted again, we attended a panel interview with 4 instructors. Needless to say, I was very flattered at being one of the four students chosen."
Jen Reilly, an instructor with the Destination Resort Management (DRM) program, said that each student will bring different skills to the project.
"Jase brings a lot of international experience and I believe he is a born leader," she said. "While Kyla has a strong level of organization and is great with time management."
Reilly explained that the project, which will span two years, will see several groups of students travel to the region to work with local government, businesses and entrepreneurs to develop products that will potentially attract tourists and help build a vision for the community.
The students help deliver training modules and the ultimate goal is to help the community become self sufficient so that they can continue to grow long after the project is done. Business owners attend these training sessions and set goals for their establishment, which are to be reached by the next time the students come back. If they fail to reach them, students will work with the business owners to come up with a better way to attain the goal. Students will also work with children learning English and environmental stewardship, and local government learning about community based tourism planning.
Wilson and Derkach will be leaving for Vietnam on March 14 to take part in three training sessions a day for a week. They will then return home, report on the progress and another group of students will continue the project in June.
"Following the trip I will take some time to ski and climb," shared Wilson. "Then I will be starting the third year of my (Bachelor of Tourism Management) degree program in September in North Vancouver."
"There are so many opportunities that present themselves in the DRM program," Derkach said. "Had it not been for this program, I would have never had the chance to be part of this exciting project. A number of the courses including Entrepreneurship, Marketing and PR, Human Resources and Environmental Stewardship really have given me the framework to be able to perform in this type of role."
For more information and to follow the students' progress, visit http://cbtvietnam.blogspot.com/.
