Hi there! My name is Thomas Vo, I am an international student from Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. I was admitted to the University of Pittsburgh as a freshman for the Fall 2018 semester and am currently pursuing a double degree from the College of Business Administration and the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences. I’m studying Marketing and Political Science with minors in History and Legal Studies.

I was tremendously blessed to be able to visit and travel to so many places throughout my life. It has been a great and exciting journey. In the past, I have been to Japan, Australia, China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and many other countries. I have always been absolutely fascinated by the vast differences between diverse cultures wherever I go. I was determined to become an exchange student in the United States and eventually applied to college in Pennsylvania after graduating high school in suburban Kansas City.

I was soon to find out that I enjoy being and working with other people. Also, I have grown increasingly passionate about U.S. Economics and Politics. I declared my majors in January 2019 and became a student of both departments. When CBA offered an opportunity for me to do more traveling, I could not resist. I chose the Republic of Korea.

I have been to this country a couple of times before as a transfer point to the United States, but, unfortunately, have never been anywhere outside of the Incheon International Airport. However, ICN itself, more modernized, automated, and cleaner than any other airport I have ever been to in the United States or anywhere else, got me wondering what it was like in the city of Seoul, and other communities in South Korea. I wanted to see it for myself.

Robust industries, world-renowned tech companies, automated smart systems, and a highly disciplined work culture constitute an attractive market for businesses around the globe to attempt to penetrate. South Korea is a nation undergoing rapid economic growths—one of the Four Tigers of Asia, despite its neighboring country wanting to see it utterly destroyed and taken over. That brings me to the political climate in the Korean Peninsula, one of the main reasons I chose this nation to visit, over Germany or Argentina.

I want to physically be at the 38th Parallel N, glance over the Han River from the infamous Demilitarized Zone, to compare and contrast the differences between these two nations—one democratic and free, one an underdeveloped hermit kingdom.

Let the journey begin.