{"id":13641,"date":"2022-09-07T15:54:28","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=13641"},"modified":"2022-09-07T16:24:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T20:24:05","slug":"i-came-out-a-better-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/i-came-out-a-better-person\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I came out a better person\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
UMES Engineering Technology major Akiyah Smith takes a photo during her internship in South Korea this summer. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Akiyah Smith<\/strong> took a leap of faith when the opportunity for an international internship arose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senior engineering technology major from Washington D.C., who is graduating in December, jumped at the chance to take part in a 10-week summer practicum with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers nearly a world away in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat specific one just called out to me,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt was different, and me, personally, I don\u2019t travel a lot so that was something I just kind of yearned for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith\u2019s first time out of the country started with a flight and layover in Toronto, Canada, before embarking to South Korea on a 13-hour trek. Once Smith arrived there, she encountered a much different world than what she found stateside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was very different,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were a lot of signs I didn\u2019t understand (because of the language) and I often had to use Google Maps or Google Translate, but I wasn\u2019t nervous or anything like that. I was very excited to start a new chapter in my life. If you apply yourself, you never know what might come your way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her internship, Smith was in the role of an engineering technician, which allowed her to shadow the engineers in four divisions \u2013 construction, Geotech, project management, and engineering design. Of all the divisions, the construction aspect was her favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was so much more hands-on\u2026 you got to actually got to see what the contractors were doing with the building,\u201d she said. \u201cI liked being able to be on-site and seeing the end product.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Monday through Friday were the work days, the weekends allowed Smith to voyage out and get a greater glimpse of South Korean culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe culture out there is very different,\u201d she said. \u201cOn the trains, you\u2019re not supposed to talk. They have Wi-Fi on the trains, so everybody\u2019s on their phones. (Compared to) D.C., you can have a whole conversation and be loud, and have a regular conversation with your friends. You have to adjust to your environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Akiyah Smith poses in front of a mural in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, during her summer internship.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Smith said her trip to South Korea was a transformative one as it not only allowed her to experience new things but also gave her a personal and career-centric revelation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy goal is to get back to (South Korea). The (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) have branches everywhere, but the one place that fits me, I feel, is Korea,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like I came in as one way and I\u2019m not that person anymore. I came out a better person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Akiyah Smith took a leap of faith when the opportunity for an international internship arose. The senior engineering technology major from Washington D.C., who is graduating in December, jumped at the chance to take part in a 10-week summer practicum with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers nearly a world away in Pyeongtaek, South Korea….Read more \u2018I came out a better person\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":13644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13641"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=13641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}