Asah Whalen ’19 was nervous when he first got off the 16-hour flight to Hong Kong. His only international experience before this had been the occasional trip to Canada and now here he was, with three other St. Michael’s students, about to spend the next eight weeks living and interning in this international business metropolis.
Whalen, along with Aaron Kalat ’19, Alex Otten ’19, and Dagmar Charity Lee Wright ’20, all participated in the first Global Citizenship Internship Program that was created through a donation by the Freeman Foundation.
Through this program, each student was assigned a business where they interned and through this, they would quickly discover the strenuous work environment that comes with Hong Kong businesses.
“It’s kind of a workaholic culture and they all got slammed by that,” said Jeffery Ayres, professor of political science at St. Michael’s and one of the head organizers of the program. “They were just thrown into this cooking pot where suddenly you’re expected to work 10 to 12 hours a day.”
Whalen worked at an environmental NGO called Heroes Too that focused on educating Hong
Kong grade students in sustainability. “The bulk of the work that I was doing was spreading awareness and getting people on the same page in South East Asia of really caring [about climate change and plastic pollution].”
“It’s almost indescribable how busy of a city it is,” said Otten, who worked for a health care consulting company doing background research. “It’s interesting because when you’re there you’re not like a tourist or a student but somebody who is just working.”
Kalat worked at a PR and marketing firm called MEPR where he worked on rebranding. “On an average day I would go to work at like 9 and leave around 8,” said Kalat, “It was weird at first because five o’clock would roll around and everyone would still be typing away and it would just get exhausting.”
These long hours didn’t stop them for exploring the city.
“If you want to talk about somewhere that never sleeps [Hong Kong] is just always going,” said Otten. Kalat saw this first hand as he spent several nights walking around the city taking photos for a personal project. “One of the things that shocked me the most was just the buzz of the city, it was something I’ve never heard before.”
When they did have time to sleep the four students stayed in Harbour Plaza North Point, a hotel located in the eastern region of Hong Kong named Quarry Bay with a beautiful view overlooking the Kowloon Bay. The hotel, along with the flight over, was all paid for through the $7,000 scholarship each student was given for the trip. This would become their home for the next two months and a region that Asah would soon find out as being the, “wealthy part of Hong Kong.”
“In [Quarry Bay] there are a lot of bankers and high level Westerners there to do business,” said Whalen. “So every third car you see is a Tesla and every tenth car you see is a Lamborghini.”
Even within the long work hours and all the other struggles that come with living in a different country, the final verdict for all these students was that they would definitely go back.
“It’s really interesting to be somewhere that’s just a completely different world,” said Otten. “It really is a once in a life time experience.”
If you are interesting in interning in Hong Kong you can find more information on the St. Michael’s website or by contacting Jeffery Ayres. Applications are due by November 28.