OHIO GLC student reflects on life-changing trip to Cambodia

Jonathan Baldwin, a psychology student currently in his last semester of study, joined Ohio University’s Global Leadership Center (GLC) to gain professional experience and leadership skills internationally. He gained that and more during his trip to Cambodia last May.

The GLC leads a two-year certificate program that offers students of any major the opportunity to gain consulting and leadership experience by organizing different projects with international organizations each semester. 

Baldwin, who is now in his second year with the GLC, is a senior studying psychology and focusing on educational research. During the 2014-15 school year, he and the GLC team he was on consulted with the Cambodia Living Arts (CLA) organization located in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. 

The CLA’s mission is to facilitate positive societal and economic growth in Cambodia through the promotion and exhibition of art. Cambodia has a rich history of art that the CLA promotes and uses to its advantage to yield tangible results. However, the organization’s problem was that about 83 percent of the people that attended CLA art events were tourists. The CLA wanted to affect Cambodians as much as they were able to reach out to tourists.

During the 2015 spring semester, Baldwin spent time researching CLA, Cambodian culture, different styles of art, and more with his teammates, Arden MacDonald, a linguistics major, and Haley Hershman, an applied plant biology major. They also worked via Skype with a team of Cambodian students studying at the American University of Phnom Penh.

“It was really awesome getting to know [the American University of Phnom Penh team], presenting with them, and meeting them in person,” Baldwin said. “It added a level of difficulty that I wasn’t expecting, but also a level of reward that I wasn’t expecting to reap.”

In May, Baldwin and his GLC teammates traveled to Cambodia to work on the consulting project for CLA face to face with his teammates from the American University of Phnom Penh.

Baldwin and his teammates used their two weeks in Cambodia to further their research and polish their proposals before presenting them to CLA.

One of the things that Baldwin and his teammates had noticed was that the majority of the art that CLA organized was in the form of live performances. These performances would usually only occur once and also required that a cover charge be paid by attendees. Baldwin and his teammates determined that these performances were not convenient for Cambodians to attend.

“The first thing that we proposed was for CLA to diversify their art forms,” Baldwin said.

Instead of only offering traditional performance art, it would be beneficial to CLA if the organization started providing and promoting more contemporary and transformative art.

“As wonderful as these traditional performances are, over half of [Cambodia’s] population is below the age of 24,” Baldwin said. 

Their second proposal for CLA was that it should further diversify its art to include tangible art in addition to performance art. Street art and art galleries would be able to be offered for longer times and could be moved to different locations, unlike one-time-only performances.

The final proposal was for CLA to increase its marketing efforts.

“The main mode of transportation in Cambodia is the tuk tuk…which is a bike with a cart attached,” Baldwin said. “People pay a fee to the bike driver and ride in the cart.”

Baldwin and his teammates proposed to CLA that the organization put their ads inside of tuk tuks so that people would see them as they travel, similar to the ads you see inside subways and taxis. The back of the tuk tuk also has space for advertisements, and their frequent travel throughout cities would mean that the ad would be seen by a wide audience.

Additionally, during their research phase Baldwin and his teammates travelled to 20 different hotels and hostels to ask the staff if they knew about CLA and the events that were offered. Only two out of the 20 businesses had heard of CLA, so the GLC students also proposed that CLA put its brochures in the information kiosks in hotels.

“And CLA was already producing these brochures, they just weren’t placing them in the hotels,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin was pleased with the proposals his team came up with and he said that CLA was as well.

“I know that they appreciated the marketing and promotional efforts recommendations, specifically the information we found out about hotels and hostels not having knowledge or pamphlets about them,” Baldwin said. “That was one thing that I know that they improved upon very quickly.” 

In addition to working on the proposals, the GLC students were also able to tour Cambodia and experience the local culture, which was very different in some instances.

“It was very interesting to see how different eating is. [In Cambodia] it’s all about sharing and contributing to the table,” said Baldwin. 

Baldwin and his teammates also experienced as much of the Cambodian culture and society as they could fit in during their two-week stay. They visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, in addition to other national landmarks and museums. 

After graduation, Baldwin plans to pursue graduate school and he is looking at OHIO’s Educational Research and Evaluation program, the Critical Studies in Educational Foundations program, and the International Development Studies program. He intends to find a job in the educational research field. 

The GLC not only offered Baldwin the opportunity to consult for an international organization, it also helped him by exposing him to international school in Phnom Penh. Robert Stewart, advisor for the GLC and director of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, took him to the school in order to tour the facility, meet the faculty and staff, and experience how school systems operate differently than those in the United States. 

Ultimately, Baldwin’s trip abroad was life changing.

“A lot of people ask me: ‘Was it worth it?’ ‘Would you do it again?’ ‘What did you learn?’” Baldwin said. “I think the biggest thing that I learned was a knowledge about myself… about how I react, adapt, and am capable of functioning in different cultures and countries.”

The trip gave Baldwin an overall confidence in himself that he did not have before.

“Maybe before, I would have shied away from a job or internship prospect in another state because it would be strange, and foreign, and not Ohio,” said Baldwin. “But now I know that I can operate and be successful...and stretch beyond my boundaries. I would absolutely recommend the experience to anyone.”