Vermont to Vietnam: St. Mike’s student dives into healthcare industry through Freeman-funded internship program

Austin Brush ’26 had never traveled abroad until he spent eight weeks in Vietnam thanks to a grant he received through Saint Michael’s College’s International Internship Program, supported by the Freeman Foundation.

The grant sends students from St. Mike’s to countries in Asia – most recently Vietnam or South Korea – for two months each summer to complete an internship and become immersed in a new culture. Saint Michael’s College is one of 33 schools in the U.S. that receives funding from the Freeman Foundation.

For his first time traveling outside the U.S., Brush chose a place that plunged him right into a healthcare setting, language barrier and all. He interned at 1A Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, during summer 2025. 

Despite the challenges he faced that came from traveling abroad for the first time, Brush said he got a lot out of being fully immersed in Vietnam. For example, he was able to apply his experience as an EMT with Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue while also learning about Vietnam’s healthcare system and culture.  

Austin Brush ’26 stands next to a Vietnamese flag during his travels as a Freeman Foundation-funded intern in summer 2025. (Photo courtesy of Austin Brush)

The internship

Jeffrey Ayres, Director of the Institute for Global Engagement and Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Saint Michael’s, sees the value in having this opportunity for students, as it’s uncommon for a small liberal arts school. 

“Having the Freeman grant is providing students with a really valuable opportunity to build up skills that make you more career and future ready,” said Ayres. “Most of the schools that get this grant are large R1 research universities, so we’re in really good company.”

Internship opportunities run the gamut, so the grant can accommodate many different academic disciplines, Ayres said.

“There’s some overlap, but South Korea is strong in social science, business, and marketing. Vietnam is strong in education, environmental science, politics, and even more broadly, STEM,” Ayres explained. 

Brush would fit into the STEM category as a health science major on a pre-nursing track. 

While in Vietnam as a nursing intern, Brush cycled through different departments in the hospital, including those focused on trauma, rehabilitation, and orthopedics. Not only had Brush taken courses at St. Mike’s that helped prepare him for this kind of work, but he had worked at an assisted living home in Richmond, Vermont, and with Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue as an EMT. He said his certification gained through Fire and Rescue, especially, went a long way.

“A lot of people hadn’t had the experience I had, and they still did fine, but I felt like it helped me,” Brush said. “I did CPR my second day there. That hospital specifically is more for rehabilitation, so they don’t do a lot of CPR training. They’re not ready for those types of things.”

Language barriers

While Brush’s experiences helped him in many ways, he was still not entirely prepared for the language barriers he faced, having never learned Vietnamese.

“My roommate had a friend in Vietnam, and he was like, ‘Don’t worry, you’re not gonna have to learn a word. Everybody speaks English,’” Brush said. “I got dropped into the city, and nobody was speaking English. I learned a lot more Vietnamese than I ever intended to learn.” 

Luckily for Brush, he was part of a wider network of people in his internship program experiencing many of the same things. The program helped prepare him, and he was able to grow accustomed to the unfamiliar environment and language. 

“The first five days, they let you adjust to the time zone and then start to slowly get you into activities and doing stuff,” Brush said. “They did a mini Vietnamese lesson when I first got there, and I wrote down a whole bunch of notes.” 

The welcoming environment of the hospital and community at large allowed Brush to experience Vietnam’s language and culture and become more comfortable with Vietnamese customs, he said. 

“I thought I was going to be an outsider, but people would just talk to me or try to practice English with me,” Brush said. “They were just genuinely curious about where I’m from. That doesn’t happen here.”

Austin Brush ’26 got to experience traveling in a foreign country for the first time when he was selected for a Freeman Foundation-funded internship in Vietnam during the summer of 2025. (Photo courtesy of Austin Brush)

Travel and culture

Having never left the country, Brush was nervous, but he quickly found enjoyment in travel, interacting with the people around him, trying new foods, and exploring the country. When he wasn’t working from around 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, he traveled outside Ho Chi Minh City and throughout Vietnam. 

“I met a ton of people,” Brush said. Recalling his first days in the country, he added, “I was nervous, at first. Day one, I got there, and just met everybody real quick. By the end of the week, I felt like I had been there for months. I was already going to get food with them afterwards, or play ping-pong. I felt super welcome while I was out there.” 

Brush’s travels in his free time included a solo trip to Hà Giang, a city in the northeast of Vietnam known for the Hà Giang loop, in which the road winds through the mountains. Despite some hiccups on this journey, including missing the first bus to Hà Giang, Brush found his way and enjoyed the trip. 

“I got to travel to every different region. I ended up traveling every weekend,” Brush said. “I took a couple sleeper buses, I took a couple flights, but the coolest trip by far was when I went to North Vietnam. If you talk to anyone who did this trip, they’ll probably say the same thing: Hà Giang. It was a crazy mountain range, right up on the border of China.”

Brush also traveled to Dalat, another city in Vietnam. 

“It was probably my favorite place,” he said. “It was like a mini Paris, they had a mini Eiffel Tower, and there’s European architecture. Our supervisor was from there, and she ended up giving us a whole bunch of spots to go to. I ended up playing guitar in this bar with random guys.” 

Connecting through common hobbies

Austin Brush ’26 poses with friends in Vietnam while completing an internship abroad through a Freeman Foundation-funded grant in summer 2025. (Photo courtesy of Austin Brush)

Dalat wasn’t the only time Brush played guitar in Vietnam. He found music to be a unifying factor throughout his entire trip. Having played guitar for several years, he was happy to find that music was a large part of the culture he had immersed himself in. 

“Playing guitar was a constant theme in that country,” Brush said. “[For example], when I walked into the hospital, there were like six guitars in the back of the physical therapy room. They also played a different way from me, too, so I got to learn from them. I always learn when I play [music] with people. It’s a universal language.” 

Brush said that sports also allowed him to connect and socialize, including volleyball, ping-pong, soccer and pool.

Another way Brush immersed himself? Trying new food. 

“The food is so so good out there,” Brush said. “Down in the south of Vietnam, they do báhn mì in different ways. It’s actually from Saigon, where we were staying, so that was the staple food there. I had a ton of pho. I tried Indian food for the first time. I don’t know the names of all of the things I ate, but I liked everything. The fried chicken was the best fried chicken ever.”

As a coffee drinker, Brush was excited to try Vietnamese coffee as well.

“It wires you, though, the coffee is really strong,” he said.

Going outside of your comfort zone, traveling abroad, and trying new things isn’t easy, but Brush thinks anyone considering taking on the Freeman internship should just go for it.

“I wasn’t 100 percent sure I wanted to go, but it was totally worth it in the end,” Brush said. “If [someone is] on the edge of maybe doing it, I say send it and take the trip.”

More information about Saint Michael’s College’s Global Citizenship International Internship Program, funded by the Freeman Foundation, can be found here.>>