Though more than thirty years had passed since we alighted to our VIA posts as fresh-faced young adults, the excitement at the prospect of seeing new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new cultures felt very familiar. In January 2024, four of us VIA alums met our tour guide (strategic director Wallace Wong) in Bangkok, Thailand to begin a week and a half of immersion in Thai culture and history and reconnection with VIA. We naturally enjoyed seeing glorious temples, eating fantastic food at night markets, and, of course, cavorting with elephants. But the most memorable aspect was visiting VIA-connected institutions in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Myanmar border. There we helped teach a school lesson to refugee camp students at the Minmahaw School and visited a clinic for Burmese refugees. Soon afterwards, spent the day at the Social Impact Partnership Conference in Chiang Mai, exchanging stories and ideas over great food with current Global Community Fellows, leaders from partner organizations, and other VIA alums.
We were confident that traveling through VIA would provide special insights and perspectives that no standard tour or solo travel could provide. We weren’t disappointed. We really valued sharing our VIA experiences from a generation ago with current fellows and other alums. Even decades later, the imprint of our time with VIA during our formative young adult years remains sharp. Hearing about how the organization has adroitly evolved to changing times and continues to do important, innovative work over sixty years since its inception was deeply gratifying, and makes us very eager to join the next study tour!

VIA’s study tour was a great first experience of Japan! We saw so many beautiful and interesting places and ate so well. Meeting Japanese alumni of VIA programs, hearing about their experiences and discussing social issues was a highlight for me.

My first introduction to Indonesia was as a freshly minted college graduate serving as an English teacher at two institutions of higher education. My subsequent return to Indonesia on a VIA sponsored Indonesia study tour was one of the best travel experiences I have encountered. The organization and accommodations for this trip were outstanding and all locally owned and run. The people and projects that VIA partnered with to provide this experience connected me to amazing local individuals who were focused on social impact leadership in their communities. These groups included local villages striving to retain their youth, fair trade organizations seeking to improve the economies of local villages, and Taman Baca, an artist and intellectual collective for the community seeking among other things to freely discuss the events of ’65 in Indonesia. As with all VIA events, the invitation to enter local communities in a very authentic way provided participants with perspectives on Indonesian society that would not otherwise have been accessible. All of this is in addition to visiting the main cultural events and monuments in this part of the world. It was a once in a lifetime trip for me to a country rich in art, culture, humanity and change.

On our first date, my future husband Paul talked about his 1966 summer internship with VIA in Vietnam. The experience changed his preconceptions about other cultures as he developed a sense of community with his hosts in Buôn Ma Thuột. He also made lifelong friendships with other participants and strengthened his commitment to VIA and its goals.
When I joined him on a ten-day study tour of Japan that Kazutoh Ishida led in the spring of 2017, I shared new perspectives, friendships, and experiences of VIA’s global reach. We met VIA experts like Dr. Takayuki Oshimi, who illuminated some of the interrelationships of culture and medical care. I also got to know recent VIA participants from Japan, who helped me learn to hold chopsticks politely, read Tokyo metro maps, and discover the treasures within Japanese Seven Eleven stores.
We sampled regional cuisines that ranged from Osaka’s octopus balls to Tokyo’s signature tempura. The study tour scheduled for this autumn takes place in a different season and is more centered on Kyoto and nearby Nara. But I’m sure you will meet unexpected generosity and kindness, as well as surprising experiences.