Some upper division finance students will study abroad this summer at the National Economics University in Hanoi, Vietnam for free.
Ten upper division finance students at Cal State Long Beach will be chosen to study abroad in Vietnam and receive free tuition, books and a $500 scholarship. The scholarship’s deadline is March 10.
“This is not like other study abroad programs, which just take our students,” Hamdi Bilici, professor and chair of the finance department, said. “It is the same class taught by the same instructor so … I take my students and put them in a classroom with Vietnamese students, and they study side by side.”
Outside of the classroom, Bilici said, it is up to the students to explore the country further.
“It depends on what students really want to get out of the experience,” Bilici said.
Although Bilici said that the students’ financial burden will be relatively low, those selected will have to pay for food, a daily campus-housing fee that ranges from $10 to $20 and their own airfare, which is the biggest expense.
Students accepted into the program will receive scholarship funds from the CBA after they successfully complete the course and transfer their credits back to CSULB, Bilici said.
Bilici said that upper division finance students who enroll in the Finance 300 class during the summer are eligible for the program.
CSULB alumnus Matthew Diluzio said he went to Hanoi to study abroad with the program during the 2011-12 winter intersession. Although Diluzio said every morning started with a class at 8 a.m., the rest of his time there always delivered a new experience.
“They took us all to really cool restaurants, and every day after lunch we would explore something, like a temple,” Diluzio said. “We would kind of just go around to different things in the city. Sometimes it was a bar, sometimes it was karaoke.”
Diluzio said the highlight of his trip was spending New Year’s Eve at Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site composed of 1,600 limestone islands rising from the ocean.
“It was this crazy, cool bay,” Diluzio said. “You have to see it to believe it. We anchored with four other boats and had one big party, and to cap it off, at midnight we all jumped off this three-story house boat into the water.”
In the end, Diluzio said that the benefit of the trip went beyond what he learned academically.
“I didn’t think I would make as many friends as I did, and I can tell you that we all felt that way,” Diluzio said. “We still talk to them, and we’re even planning to hopefully go back and see them.”
Bilici said students will be selected for the program between May 26 and June 14.
