Our group had the opportunity to visit Cambodia as part of a cultural immersion program with West Point’s Center for Conflict and Human Security Studies. Journeys Within organized our trip throughout Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand; however, the central activity in our travels was working with JWOC in Siem Reap. Our group consisted of five West Point cadets, and myself, who is a member of the faculty in West Point’s Social Science Department and Major in the United States Army.
We
spent many of our 11 days in Siem Reap working with the children and young
adults in several of JWOC’s English language classes. Most of the classes
consisted of our group simply having conversations with the various students
enrolled in the school. The students were extremely happy to have native
speakers to converse with and to learn about our various backgrounds and
experiences. In fact, we probably learned as much about Cambodian culture and
daily life from these classes as we did from any of the other cultural
immersion activities that we were part of our travels. The students and
instructors of the classes where all extremely gracious for allowing us to be
part of their English classes and working with them was a tremendous amount of
fun for our group.
One of
the most interesting parts of my experience with JWOC was the numerous
interactions we had with their scholarship students. JWOC selects these
students from numerous applicants while they are in high school or early years
of the college. The program provides funding for college tuition and books for
these students in exchange for their service teaching at the JWOC school, working
with JWOC’s microfinance project, and JWOC’s clean water project. In addition
to getting the necessary labor to help run these other programs, the
scholarship students gain important work skills that will help them obtain
future employment. Journeys Within Hotel and Tour Company and JWOC have hired several of these
scholarship students to stay on as permanent staff and many of the NGOs who are
operating in the area have also hired them for their English proficiency and
skills learned while serving in the program.
While
job skills and education are ultimately the outcome that most scholarship
students join the program to obtain, the local community gains something far more
important than simply another educated worker or even the actual well or
business loan that JWOC provided. These
scholarship students serve as invaluable role models for the young children enrolled
in JWOC schools and living in the local communities that they reach. Many young
people in the local villages know very few educated and successful people who
began life under similar circumstances, and these scholarship students show
them that life beyond subsistence farming is possible. Cambodian society has
almost no interaction between the wealthy and the exceedingly poor citizens,
and therefore most young people grow up without knowing many educated adults. It seems that very few paths lead to social
mobility in Cambodia, and JWOC’s scholarship program is one of those few
avenues. The scholarship program is a critical component to ensuring that both JWOC
continues to have a skilled labor pool and ensuring that average Cambodians can
have a life beyond their village.
We had
several opportunities to work with and talk to these scholarship students
throughout our time in Siem Reap. These occasions occurred during both planned
interactions with the students and as we worked with them throughout JWOC’s
various social programs. These students were very eager to learn about other
cultures and life beyond their world in Siem Reap. Most have never traveled
beyond their province and none we met had ever left Cambodia. Often times,
conversations would lead to how government, schools, businesses, and every day
people interact within American society. Honest discussions about their own
government rarely occur and mostly they are only exposed to the local version
of the news that they received from state owned news outlets. The students
seemed eager to hear our opinions of our own country’s successes and failures
in subjects like foreign and social policy. More than what we were saying on
any particular subject, they were intrigued by our frankness and willingness to
disagree with US government’s decisions. Again, many of these college students
rarely have the opportunity to have open discussions with educated people or
people outside of their immediate communities. These casual discussions were
the most fulfilling part of my travels in Cambodia.
All
said, JWOC is providing needed community services, leadership opportunities,
and free educational services in a country where quality education generally
comes only to those with enough money to attend the best private schools. Given
time and enough students, those they serve will become the driver of social
progress in Siem Reap province. The organization was gracious enough to allow
our group of 5 students and myself to be a part of their daily work and for
that we are very grateful. Thank you Nicola, Alex, and the multitude of
scholarship students who we were able to work with over the past few
weeks.
