Assalamualaikum,
Allow me to [not] apologize for the lack of updates on this blog. It seems like no matter how much I say I’m sorry for not updating it and whatnot, I always seem to procrastinate in writing a blog post, albeit a short one. #haiz
Anyhows, this is a short (hopefully) summary of my internship experience at MACEE. I pretty much wrote quite a lot about what MACEE is and what I actually do as an intern under the Fulbright Malaysia & EducationUSA in my previous post here. So here’s just a little extra thing for you.
1. The people who work at MACEE are super awesome.
Okay, I bet you hear this from most people who have just completed their summer internships. Like, how their departments are the best and how their co-workers and managers are cool and all that. But for me, since MACEE itself is a small office (<20 people in total, including me), it’s pretty easy to get to know people, even the director of MACEE, Dr James Coffman (aka Jim, aka the guy with the ‘chicken‘). Since it’s a pretty small office, we basically would always go out to lunch together or have birthday parties and whatnots for everyone. Heck, they even threw me a farewell party on my second last day (just because we had a school visit on my last day so they couldn’t do it then).
2. I get to meet a lot of cool people.
Since the Fulbright Malaysia program works closely with the U.S. Embassy with regards to aiding Fulbright scholars with their visa requirements and all, I get to meet, talk and interact with people from the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia. During our award ceremony (you can read about it here, here and here, among other places), there were different people attending, both new Award grantees and Fulbright alumni who are all wonderful and awesome in their own ways. Sadly tho, I wasn’t able to take a picture with Dr Mazlan Othman, the cool astrophysicist.
3. It’s interesting to see things from a different perspective.
Listening in to Kendall and Kavita (the EducationUSA advisers) during advising sessions with students who are interested to pursue their studies in the U.S. was an eye-opener. As a MARA scholar, I did not take into account how much a degree was going to cost if I were to attend a private vs public university vs a liberal arts college and all that financial stuff. For MARA scholars (or any other scholars), we worry more about the rankings (considering how for certain scholarships, you need to get admitted into a top-ranked university, etc). So when I listen in to private students and their thought processes of choosing a school to attend or even apply to, it gives me a new perspective to think about, and how grateful I am for the opportunity I was given to study in the U.S. as a MARA scholar (technically a ‘loaner’ but Idk, scholar sounds more fun ‘coz I ain’t no ‘loner’, geddit?)
4. Working life? Ain’t no sunshines and rainbows.
I am definitely not a morning person. Heck, ever since I ended my internship, I’ve been sleeping 2am onwards and not wanting to get out of bed until I absolutely have to go and do something (i.e. eat, pray, shower, go out, etc). So having to force myself to go to sleep by midnight and wake up early to get to work (it takes about an hour to drive myself to work), it really is a test of discipline. It’s not like going to morning classes that I can just go back to bed and skip classes (guilty, don’t worry, I don’t have morning classes to skip much anyways). But I can’t do that with work, so I have to force myself to be up early and get to work. Though, what I can say is that since I enjoy my work at MACEE, it doesn’t feel much of a ‘work’ life to me. Probably the hardest thing about ‘work’ is actually getting off my bed in the morning -.-
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So yeah, that’s probably it for now. I’ve really enjoyed my internship at MACEE & have learnt a lot about US/Malaysia Education & exchanges and all that. It’s been a fun experience and I’m thankful for this opportunity. :’)
I’ll end this post with a couple of pictures with my coworkers, and until next time, stay awesome! 🙂
