Hello, and welcome to Pia Pham’s webpage! This blog post is for me to tell you a little bit about myself : who I am, why I made this blog, what I’ve done so far… So, here we go!
Being an International Student
My full name is An Nguyen Thien Pham, but I usually go with Pia. I am an international student from Vietnam. As an International Relations major , I am willing to learn, flexible and agile to the changing environment that I am facing everyday in my life. I want to be an inspirational person, as i am someone who love to connect people together, help others to feel good about themselves, be more confident and spread a positive mind to everyone.
In 2015-2016, I was an exchange student in Florida and North Carolina. My experience as a communicator and a student has been enhanced greatly and positively throughout the year. I want to use my experiences to help other people – international students, specifically to increase their English skill, as well as their intercultural communication, and adapt to the new environment that they are in. Being an ex-exchange student has influenced my life a lot, as I’ve learned positive self-talking and broke out of my own shell. The way you think shapes the way you look at the world.
I am also an adventurous person, as I love traveling and seeing new places. You could see my pictures of where I’ve traveled to through this link.
Being an ASIAN studying abroad in AMERICA
My academic journey so far has been really satisfactorily challenging. Being in a country where people don’t speak my native language and acquiring knowledge in that language, I have met some great people who are really talented and empowering, and that humbles me as a scholar and a human beings. There were times where I struggled with the clash of my identity and another culture’s value, and there were times when I simply stood out of the flow and watched as people went by and asked myself a question : “Who am I?” .
I am, in fact, trying to find myself in the mist of differences, between an individual’s value and social’s value, between being a collectivist living in an individualism culture ( Which I did a research on! ). I am still working on defining myself, but also learning from others. I hope that through my works and what I collected as well as learned throughout my academic journey, I could empower other international students, especially Asians and Vietnamese, to pursue their dreams and continue on inspiring others. I will keep on updating this e-portfolio as I continue on my studying, and keep expanding this “database” of knowledge and be as resourceful as I could.
What this e-portfolio is for
As for this blog post, I want to share some things about myself. I am currently a student in the Lane Honor’s Program at Lane community college, a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, a calligrapher, a musician, a writer, and a dreamer. I want to create a catalog that can record what I have accomplished so far and hopefully inspire others to achieve their academic goal as well as their personal goal throughout my works.
Invitation to Inquiry is the first step that I decided to take to further my academic path and explore my abilities. I am thankful for my instructors and classmates who have all created a friendly and informative learning environment. At the end of the course, I hope that I can distribute my works throughout the term and learn critical skills during the process.
Academics: This would provide you an insight of my academic experiences throughout the term : How joining Lane Honors Program has helped me improve as a scholar, my annotated bibliography, scholar biography, and final reflective essay with two paragraphs of reflection for each assignment.
Goals : This would give you a sense about my academic and extracurricular goals. However I would focus mainly on my academic goals : my time at Lane, joining the Lane Honors Program, and my Winter 2017 term.
Learning outside the classroom: Included are pictures of out class ‘s field trip to University of Oregon and other events organized by the Lane Honors Program that I have attended.
My hobbies : Not required for Invitation to Inquiry, but I want to include it to give you an overview of me as an active scholar. This includes my music works, calligraphy, and some of my small writing pieces.
