My study abroad experience in Beijing was, at the very least, everything I could have hoped for. About midway through the semester, I decided that four months would not be enough time in China and I quickly started to make plans of staying in China this summer. After struggling to find a suitable internship or housing, I was fortunately given the opportunity to stay at TBC and be the Social Media and Communications Intern this summer.
I could not have asked for a better situation to be living in Beijing this summer. I am doing a homestay with professors at UIBE, which allows me to stay on campus and very close to all my friends at school. There are a few reasons why the TBC internship is the best summer job anybody could ask for.
The first is the work experience I am receiving. Unlike a lot of internships you hear of, I am not filing papers or serving coffee. My internship is very self-driven and gives me the opportunity to explore my own projects. Furthermore, this internship gives me the opportunity to work alongside professionals in the business and learn from them everyday.
However, what truly makes this such a great internship is not the experience, but the office environment. I laugh and smile everyday at work. There is no better start to your day than entering the office and hearing Student Development Coordinator, Alan Jia, say “Hello sunshine!”. The TBC staff members are not just co-workers, they are friends. Lunch is eaten together almost everyday and many times, our Director, Fr. Jim Caime, will treat us to lunch.
This is the type of environment I wish to work in some day and why I believe TBC is the best possible internship I could ask for.
By Tommy Sullivan, Boston College, TBC Social Media and Communications Intern and Spring 2015 Student
Over this past weekend, some of our students enrolled at Minzu University of China took their annual Spring Outing – this year, to Gubei Water Town. Situated about a 2-hour drive northeast of Beijing, the April weather made it absolutely perfect to explore for a spring outing. It surrounds various canals and offshoots of Yuanyang lake.
If you ever want to get a taste of Old Beijing, by far one of the best ways is to visit the hutongs. They’ve conceptually been around all the way since the 1200s, and in their most modern forms exist as protected alleyways and streets surrounded by old traditional houses and neighborhoods in the heart of Beijing and are recognized in China to be an important part of cultural heritage in the city.