By Eric Tran
As a part of my internship, we live in a volunteer house with a lot of other people. Because there are so many people to feed the house actually hires cooks to come in twice a day to make us lunch and dinner. Sometimes though, when I want to switch things up, I might go out to eat with friends or even have food delivered to the house. The area our house is in is also residential, and there are street vendors and proper eateries on literally every street, so I can rest assured that I will never go hungry.
Recently, I went out to eat with some of my students. I teach at the Hanoi University of Industry, so the students are actually around my age, so we naturally got along really well. Once I was done with my project and was no longer their teacher, we went out to eat Korean Barbecue as just a group of friends, and it was a really nice experience. They treated me out so I didn’t have to pay anything, and they also did most of the grilling, even though I offered to do it for them (because I actually like to do the grilling!). We ate at a street-food type restaurant, meaning there was no physical building where we sat to eat—just chairs and tables and the grill. It was very cozy, the food was delicious, and the time I’ve spent with them and the other new friends that I’ve made here in Vietnam has all been very rewarding. I look forward to coming back soon and going out to eat with them again!
By Sabrina Fay
I work as a summer service associate in the Pace Center, producing content like this blog post and assisting in the administration of the Service Focus program, but I also do a lot of other stuff on campus this summer, and I’m happy to share tidbits of my other activities.
This (above pictured) bit of contained chaos is where I do my remote Pace Center work! Since a lot of what I do is online, like this post for example, it gives me a lot of freedom to just work in my dorm or the library when I’m not needed in the office. Such flexibility also allows me time for my other commitments…
like my work as a summer intern at the Princeton Garden Project in Forbes! My fellow intern (Daniel Te ’21) and I plant, care for, and harvest vegetables and fruits which then get incorporated into meals at the Grad college over the summer and at Forbes dining hall during the academic year! We also host workdays and events open to community members coming in to help out with activities like painting the shed, weeding the beds, or planting new crops. It’s a great way to contribute to a renewable, sustainable Princeton and to have the satisfaction of growing all the ingredients in your own salad (not that I eat salad, preferring Fritos usually)!
And the rest of my time is occupied by FSI! FSI, or the Freshman Scholars Institute, is a summer program for incoming freshmen of diverse backgrounds who relate to the first-generation college student and/or low income identity. We provide cocurricular programming like trips to Philadelphia and NYC, kayaking, ice cream crawls, and study breaks run multiple times a week! And of course, we have the students take two classes which provide them with credits and give them an introduction to the academic world of Princeton in a supportive and welcoming environment. As a Residential College Advisor for the program (after participating myself just last year!) I am responsible for a smaller subset of the cohort in my advisee group and helping them out with whatever they need.
My day-to-day, as you may imagine from these pictures, is busy and certainly hectic. But above all else it is worthwhile; I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else with my summer than serving the communities that help to serve me at other times of the year! I hope you enjoy reading about the lives of the various Service Focus interns just as much!
