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The scholarship is sponsored by Campus Vacations, a student travel company that specializes in group trips for university students. One student will be rewarded with a $2,500 scholarship, a paid internship and an all-inclusive trip for two.”
“Winning this scholarship would mean the world to me because it would allow me to continue doing what I love while inspiring others to do the same,” said Pham.
“It is important for me to share my passion and to show people that there’s so much more to travel than photo ops and sightseeing. To me, it is about immersing yourself into new cultures, getting outside your comfort zone, and growing yourself in both a personal and professional manner.”
“To say that travelling has had an impact on my life is a significant understatement,” said Pham. “It has taught me more than I could have ever learned within the confinements of a classroom, and allowed me to make a difference in the global community.
So far Pham has travelled to Mexico on her first solo trip where she was able to immerse herself into the culture for three weeks. Despite the warnings from her friends on the dangers of couch surfing in Mexico, Pham says, “I didn’t feel unsafe, the people were very nice.” She has also travelled to France on an ex-change program with her school.
After graduating Pham plans to take a year off to travel. She wants to teach English in South Korea for half a year, and for the other half she would like to tour East Asia.
Pham hopes to spend about a month in Vietnam to connect with her roots. Last year she stayed in Vietnam for two weeks and says the experience was overwhelming having to meet a lot of family she’s never had the pleasure of meeting before. But she finds the people in Vietnam are “more happy there in comparison to Canadians. They manage to do a lot with what they have.”
On her application Pham was asked why travel is important to education, she answered, “As wonderful as it may be to read about the places and things that interest us, nothing can ever compare to experiencing the world firsthand. Travel reveals who we are in the context of the global community and teaches us how to appreciate diversity,” answered Pham on her application when she was asked why travelling is important to education.
“Ask anyone about the purpose of education and you’d probably get some variation of “to prepare you for the real world.” Why then should our education system be set up in a way that insulates us from it?”
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