Maysouly Douangmanith, 21, is an international student from Laos, and is enrolled in a year-long Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD)
Global UGRAD is a program that provides scholarships to undergraduate students around the world.
Douangmanith's passion and interest to experience cultural diversity prompted her to apply for the UGRAD program for International Relations.
"Landing the scholarship was a major reason for me to be here and also because of the program, it's a dream program," Douangmanith said. "I was always keen on exploring, learning and experiencing a new culture so these factors had a huge say in my decision to move to the U.S."
Douangmanith felt the education system in U.S. was different to the one in her country, Laos. The flexible credit system has allowed her to choose from a number of different avenues and specialize in areas that best suited her interests.
She also felt there were more opportunities in the U.S., not just from the academic viewpoint -- but this comes with cultural differences.
"Culturally too there are a lot of differences, take for example: Greeting in Laos is a gesture of bending one's back and bowing one's head, whereas in USA people just hug each other. The other important subject that I wanted to touch on was tipping; The 15 percentage of tip that we're supposed to pay is something quite odd to me," said Douangmanith.
Douangmanith has been trying hard every day to get better at communicating in English, and moving to an English speaking country hasn't deterred her from learning the language. Instead, she feels more motivated to become a fluent speaker.
"At times the immersive environment can really get challenging but with the right mind set I believe I can keep learning from my friends and people who really have my interests at heart. I know it's going to be a rough sail, but I am confident that I'll conquer the seas," Douangmanith said.
