Jeffrey Lamborn ’08, a mechanical engineering student in the Product Design & Innovation program, studied abroad at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore during the spring of 2007. He rates the experience an 11 out of 10, and urges others to study abroad while they are young and before other life commitments prevent them from doing so.
Lamborn studied abroad through the Global Engineering Education Exchange (GE3) program. He found the administrative processes of applying to GE3 and then transferring credits to RPI to be relatively simple. Though the support from the program was minimal while he was away, Lamborn found that he did not need it. “You get used to doing things on your own when you’re on the other side of the world,” he said.
Despite the fact that there is not much leeway in the PDI curriculum for substituting courses from other institutions, Lamborn found that the courses he took at NTU enhanced his overall education. He took a basic circuits class, a humanities class that explored the real-world applications of electricity, and a class on managing stress that focused on Buddhist meditation practices.
Lamborn also took a semester-long design class in which he worked on a project developing a protective laundry drying system for Singapore’s government housing. “The final result was a 100-plus page design report covering existing designs and patents, conceptual, embodiment, and detailed design including a full manufacturing cost analysis. Side effects of the report included two weeks of sleeplessness,” he joked. It was exciting for Lamborn to compare the design class at NTU to the design classes he is familiar with at RPI. He realized that the approaches to teaching design were similar, but that NTU focused more on engineering practicality while RPI focuses more on design exploration.
Lamborn found that it was easy to adapt to college life at NTU. Compared to RPI, “The on-campus housing supported the same study groups and the classes were relatively similar in size and material presentation,” he explained. One big difference, however, was that final exams were sometimes the only grade received for a course.
Since English and Mandarin Chinese are the main languages spoken in Singapore, Lamborn discovered that he could communicate with just about everyone he met. Though he did not study Mandarin Chinese formally, some of his classmates taught him some slang and the lingo of the English hybrid called “Singlish.” Lamborn said this could be compared to “Franglais,” a combination of French and English that American students may pick up while studying abroad in France.
Though Lamborn did not have trouble communicating, he discovered other obstacles while integrating into a foreign culture. For example, even the simple act of chewing gum is illegal in Singapore. This ban was originally instituted in 1992 because of a littering problem. “Because there were so many different cultures and religions in the area, I had to be respectful of all of them and know what actions or words crossed the line,” Lamborn explained. The consequences for vandalism in Singapore are serious indeed, as anyone who remembers the tale of Michael Peter Fay, an American who was caned in Singapore after spray painting cars, would know. Lamborn, fortunately, did not have any trouble with the law, as he respected the Singaporean laws and culture.
Given his healthy, respectful attitude, Lamborn was very successful in integrating with the culture. He accredits this to his desire not to merely blend in. He chose to live on campus, and he found that NTU students have a lot of pride in their residence halls. It felt like “a home away from home,” he said. He further immersed himself in the culture of the university by joining the school’s inline hockey team. One of his favorite memories from studying abroad in Singapore was the spring hockey tournament he participated in with his team.
On the weekends and during vacation periods, Lamborn traveled to Kuala Lumpur and Puala Penang in Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Saigon, Vietnam; Hong Kong, and Macau. He also spent a few extra weeks traveling through Europe to see friends and new places on his way back to the United States.
Lamborn found that his experience studying abroad made him more self-confident, and that it reinforced his desire to have a career that allows him to travel. The only thing he wished he had known before embarking on his experience in Singapore was how long the flight would be!
