The senior has been accepted into the prestigious Princeton-in-Asia program, and will spend next year teaching at Universiti Sains in Malaysia.
David Garcia-Pedrosa '10 first traveled to Asia last summer—specifically, to Shanghai, China, when he earned a certificate to teach English.“Being in the Far East was an amazing experience,” he says.“Everything was an adventure, from ordering food at restaurants to getting a cell phone chip (a card that allowed me to make calls) to riding on the metro.”
Now, Garcia-Pedrosa is looking forward to exploring a new part of the continent—Southeast Asia—as he prepares to spend next year teaching English at Malaysia's Universiti Sains courtesy of the Princeton-in-Asia (PiA) program. Established more than 100 years ago at Princeton University, PiA offers service-oriented experiences to recent college graduates.
Garcia-Pedrosa, a political science major with a minor in education, first heard about PiA through Dean of Academic Affairs Philip Bean. The initial application for the program involved an essay, a letter of recommendation, and a video entry. In his essay, Garcia-Pedrosa discussed his summer in Shanghai, and his video highlighted his experience teaching abroad in China and Guatemala, where he instructed first graders in English, Spanish and math. After making it past the first round, he was invited to Princeton for a personal interview.
In addition to teaching in Malaysia next year, Garcia-Pedrosa hopes to take classes in Mandarin and travel as much as possible.“I expect to have a crazy-good adventure, and the time of my life,” he says.
