American students from Virginia Commonwealth University, USA gets a taste of Borneo with Curtin Sarawak

Friday, 11 January 2008 –

6 students and staff from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), USA has been staying in Sarawak since 21st December 2007 for an inaugural winter intersession program conducted by Curtin University of Technology Sarawak entitled “People and cultures of Borneo”.

After three weeks of the Borneo experience, the students and staff were eager to share their experience during a press conference today held in Curtin Sarawak’s campus at 10am before leaving back to America the following day.

“It has been a great journey for the visitors so far as they visited different longhouses in Sarawak close to Niah, the Bakun Dam and Lambir. In Kuching, they visited the historical sites of Kuching including the Sarawak Textile Museum, Sara Craft in Santubong, Jaong areas and the Cultural Village,” shared Puan Bibi Aminah, coordinator of the winter intersession program and Director of Pre-University Studies School.

“As a student of anthropology, I feel a sense of urgency when it comes to studying another culture. The world is changing so quickly it is so important to document the special things that distinguish each group,” Sarah Carr, an Anthropology and International Studies student from VCU said during her interview.

“I feel incredibly blessed to have participated in this program and witness the changes that are taking place during this very unique time,” she added.

“During this visit, I experience a very strong sense of community amongst the different cultures that live here which leads to everyone living in harmony. It is so good to see this as I think that the sense of community is slowly disappearing in the United States because we grow to be more of an individualistic rather than being part of a community and a family,” said Dr. Gregory M. Plunkett, program coordinator, Associate Professor and Herbarium Curator for the Department of Biology, VCU.

The Borneo Studies program is one of the several education abroad opportunities available to VCU students, faculty and staff through the 15 VCU International Partnership Universities program where students will be evaluated on their workshop performance, journals, oral presentation and a final report on their experience.

“Study abroad programs are a fantastic way to present and promote the many exciting attractions and facets of life in Sarawak,” said Professor John Evans, Pro Vice Chancellor of Curtin Sarawak.

Virginia Commonwealth University is the largest university in Virginia that is also the top 100 ranking universities in the country in sponsored research. Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, VCU enrols nearly 32,000 students in 205 certificate and degree programs in arts, sciences and humanities.

This is the first program introduced by Curtin Sarawak and both universities hope to have more collaboration of such in the near future.