An Experience to Remember
Priscilla Samuel, a junior at the University of Texas at Dallas, usually spends her Fourth of July barbecuing, setting off sparklers, and watching the fireworks together with her family. However, during the summer of 2018, she couldn’t do that. Instead, she was in Egypt on an AIESEC exchange experience, volunteering to work on a project to increase tourism in the country. Because she couldn’t go to any Fourth of July celebrations, being in a completely different country, her newly made friends from all around the world decided to bring it to her instead, knowing how important the holiday is to her, singing the American national anthem and “Party in the U.S.A” by Miley Cyrus, all for her. When asked about how she felt, Priscilla says she was so happy, stating, “It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
She experienced this, along with so much more, on this opportunity, growing, not only personally, but also professionally, in a way that will help her far into the future.
“It was a time when I got to develop myself as a person,” is what Priscilla says when asked for a quote about her exchange experience. She says she went into this opportunity not expecting much, just wanting to check off a global internship credit from her degree plan but ended up getting so much more out of it.
As soon as Priscilla landed in Cairo, a member from AIESEC was ready to pick her up, kindly answering any questions she had and taking her to exchange her money. Even so, she could already feel the culture difference in the way people around her acted and spoke. She was taken to the hostel she was staying at with three other girls from multiple Hispanic backgrounds.
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