WSU Students travel to Asia to explore and learn more about their degrees

Senior Mimosa Nguyen, an electrical engineering major, will be traveling to China to take an engineering course this summer all because one day she saw a poster with the information to study abroad in the hallway.

“I saw a poster about going to China and taking an engineering course over there,” Nguyen said. “I saw it as an opportunity and I have never thought about it before seeing those posters.”

In addition to being a course Nguyen needed, she knew that she wanted to go for it.

Dr. Charles Yang, Boeing Global Engineering Leadership professor in the Engineering department was recruiting students to travel to Beijing, China, to experience the classes and culture there.

Nguyen contacted Yang, who then contacted study abroad services and will be taking a group of five engineering students to study at Beihang University in Beijing.

“I am really excited about the food,” Nguyen said, who is of Vietnamese heritage.

The program that Nguyen is enrolled in lasts for five weeks and since she is only take one class she hopes to see many of China’s landmarks.

“That’s my goal, to explore as much as I can,” Nguyen said.

Another student that will be traveling across the world is senior Cherylle Cadle.

“Since my major is International Studies I figured it’s probably good to actually be able to go overseas once before I graduate,” Cadle said.

Although the programs offered through the Wichita State Study Abroad Office didn’t have anything eye-catching to Cadle, she did find a program that fit in with her major at Yonsei University in South Korea.

“One of the reasons why I decided to do it directly was because it was cheaper for me,” said Cadle.

Depending on what courses you are taking, if using the Study Abroad Office at WSU, you can be offered discounts, but Cadle found it more affordable to contact Yonsei University herself.

“I want to be able to spend time traveling throughout Seoul and Korea so I figured I would just take two [classes], and actually enjoy myself while down there,” Cadle said.

With Cadle’s degree region of focus being Asia and Southeast Asia, she knew she wanted to end up in that area of the world.

“I am so excited for the food, I love trying all different kinds of food so the food doesn’t scare me at all,” Cadle said.

However, Cadle is nervous about is the language barrier because she is not fluent in Korean.

“It is really, really difficult, they have sounds in their language that we don’t have in English and vice versa,” she said.