Thursday, 15 October 2009
For Wai Phyo Myint, the education systemisn't that good at home so coming to America was her option. “I’m originally from Burma, Myanmar. The reason I would like to come and study isbecause of the education system. Overthere the education system is not that good and that is the main reason I wouldlike to come here and also I am interested in Communications Journalism and thePolitical Science study and over there we don’t have any institution thatoffers Political science or any Communications Journalism so coming here for meis an opportunity to come and study Political Science and Communications.” Green Mountain College is in Poultney,Vermont and Wai is in her third year at the college. She is also on an academic scholarship. “I think one of the very beautiful things ofthe Green Mountain college is we respect and we love our community. Each and every member of the GMC community maintainsthe community so everyone in the community and so everyone is really nice. So that is a really lovely thing. I didn’t expect I would find that beauty inthe United States,” she says. “Also, the Green Mountain College offeredme a ‘make a difference’ scholarship. Itis a full scholarship so I got the full scholarship to come here”Wai Phyo Myint says being able to haveopen communication with her peers and her instructors is something that sheappreciates and isn't able to do if she went to college back home. “Academically, I am really satisfied beinghere and my classes are really nice.Iam quite close to the professors and the professors are also quite helpful andconversation outside of the classroom is always lively and interesting,” shesays.“There are a lot of things I still needto learn because over there in Burma, we don’t have a change to talk and be outspoken and to talk openly about what we think and about our opinion with otherpeople so we don’t have very lively discussions, but here we can discusseverything not just about personal stuff, we can also discuss what our opinionon the government and policies,” she says. Even though we are not the policy makerswe can have a conversation in class or outside conversation so that is reallyhelpful for me and for my career back in my country. So I am really enjoying being here.” Wai campus activities include; “I workfor the school newspaper, ‘The Mountaineer’ and also I got involved in the IndonesiaAwareness Club, a club promoting awareness about different countries, cultureand other situations on campus,” she says. “We do more about educating students on campus to understand differentcultures and to appreciate diversity.”Wai Phyo Myint says she has come torealize that being in the United States is nothing like she initially hadlearned back home. “Before I came herewhenever I heard about the United States it would be mostly about the badthings basically, but now I’ve been here in at a very small and lovelycommunity so totally different from what I heard over there and now what I amexperiencing here,” she says.“Now I see the best part of the UnitedStates because over there whenever we talk about the United States or about thewars or foreign relationships with different countries and not about the goodside of the United States, now I am living in a small community and most ofthem are local farmers and they value their environment and have a very strongsense of community and respect other community members and that is very lovely,”she says. “So I see and I experience it because I beenin the community.”Wai Phyo Myint will graduate in 2011.
