Through the Freeman Foundation Grant program, Malia Smith ’25 spent eight weeks at a Bangkok, Thailand internship.
What started as a professional experience became something much bigger: a crash course in independence, flexibility, and self-discovery.
Since the Freeman Foundation Grant program began in 2013, more than 200 Champlain students have traveled to various countries in Asia for life-changing experiences that impact them academically, professionally, and personally.
In this Q&A, Malia reflects on her time in Thailand and how it prepared her not only for her career, but for life after graduation.
Q: How would you describe your Thailand internship?
It was a full experience covering all parts of marketing, marketing research, business development, and communications. I was the Marketing Research intern, which involved researching everything about starting a new business in Thailand, from sectors in healthcare to coffee shops, to make sure that we could get our clients what they’d need. I made newsletters and articles, helped build a pitch deck for a company we were planning to work with, and even did some HR work when hiring their next intern. I got to experience a bit of everything, from administrative and marketing to meeting clients and hosting events.
Q: Are there skills that you gained or strengthened through this experience that you’ve since carried with you post-graduation?
As hyper-independent as I am, it taught me a lot of real-world independence, like getting to your job, starting to pay bills, understanding currency exchanges, and all these things that I had never really had a chance to do before. One of the main things is that it really tested my time management and organizational skills. I thought I was doing pretty well at that, but being in Thailand was my first real challenge of, “Am I getting everything done, and where am I storing all of this?” It taught me practical life skills that have prepared me to be an adult in the world.
I think that’s been the most impactful, because it translated to my post-grad role as a Student Life Coordinator, where I helped others learn those skills. I helped students adjust to living in Ireland, plan their trips and go abroad, and just figure out what life is like for them while they’re in a different country.
Q: How did the Freeman Grant Program impact the trajectory of what you thought you’d get out of college, and how has that prepared you for your career?
Experiencing the 9-to-5 in an office during the internship showed me what that life is like. So immediately after college, I was looking for marketing roles, and that’s what I thought I was going to do: be in an office, recording content, and all of that. But it also taught me that you have to be flexible, because anything can change, and I think that’s really what opened my eyes, especially in Thailand.
Once you navigate being in a different country, where the language barrier is so huge, and it’s completely different than anything you expect, you come back home, and all the small stuff really does feel so small. It’s like, I’ve done all that; what else can I do now?
Q: What’s one word or phrase you would use to describe your Freeman experience?
I would describe my Freeman experience as fortifying. It solidified a lot internally: my personality, who I was, what I wanted to do, and it helped me feel more confident and comfortable with life and working. I really felt like I knew who I was at the end of it.
I think everybody’s experience is always going to be different, and that’s the beauty of it. Everybody gets their own Freeman experience and their own time in that country. It teaches you to be open, and you learn so much about yourself. Who wouldn’t want people to have the chance to do that?
Q: Is there a memory that particularly stands out from your time in Bangkok?
My most impactful memory is from a wellness meditation event, which I invited my boss and another co-worker from my internship to. It was a nice bonding moment, and at the end, my boss gave me a bouquet of flowers and some crystals, and she’s like, “I know you’ve been working so much, and I know it’s been hard adjusting to the language differences and just getting around the city.”
It was really nice to see that the work I was doing had paid off and made an impact on a job I thought I was not doing that well in the first place. It was just really nice to have her recognize the work, and to be in a meditative space with my coworkers and the other people in my cohort.
Wondering what Malia is up to now? She has transitioned to a new role as the Experiential Learning Coordinator at Champlain College! Now, she has the opportunity to help connect students with experiences like the one she had in Thailand.
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