While students at Sacramento State will always have the option to study abroad through school-funded programs, communication studies professor Thomas Knutson offers another option – to spend a year in Thailand teaching English.

This program allows for a select number of Sac State students to travel and live in Bangkok to teach English to students at the Chitralada Royal Palace School.

Knutson, who has traveled to Thailand about 42 times so far, is an advocate of traveling abroad. He started offering this opportunity to Sac State students in 2006 at the urging of a friend from Chitralada.

“They’ve really done a great job and we’ve built a really strong bridge between Sacramento and Bangkok,” Knutson said.

Knutson said he introduced the program to give students a chance to work abroad and share their skills with the Chitralada school. It is not at all funded by Sac State. But for the students who participate, it has tremendous benefits.

The Chitralada school pays for round-trip airfare, furnished accommodations and transportation from the apartment to the school. Student teachers, who are usually assigned to teach elementary students or seventh- to 12th-graders, get paid $600 every month.

“I think it’s an excellent way to take yourself out of your comfort zone and look at things from a different perspective. I loved Thailand, its people, and its rich culture, living there gave me a much deeper appreciation for the advantages we are given merely by being born in the United States,” said Erin O’Brien, who graduated from Sac State in 2006 with a degree in communication studies and participated in the program in the 2009-10 school year.

For O’Brien, the opportunity to teach in Thailand seemed right for many reasons.

“I have always wanted to travel and live in another country, but couldn’t afford it,” O’Brien said. “I wanted the experience of being immersed in a different culture instead of just going sightseeing for a few weeks. When I came across the opportunity, I said, “Why not?'”

O’Brien taught 15 one-hour-long classes every week, each with 15 to 40 students. She said she found it difficult in the beginning because she was not given much training, but said she eventually got used to it.

And when not in the classroom, they were free to do some traveling.

“We also got to attend many ceremonies and special events that were closed to the general public, so that was pretty neat. It is an opportunity to see a side of Thailand that most people don’t,” she said.

Knutson, who is an adjunct professor at Bangkok University and also conducts research about Thailand and its people, urges students who have never traveled abroad to consider taking this opportunity.

“Thailand is a remarkable place. It’s a great place to go if no one’s ever been abroad, because they are very welcome to foreigners. Our Sacramento State people who have returned are impressed beyond belief at the way they were treated,” Knutson said.

Knutson’s experiences in Thailand were so inspirational that his urging alone convinced some of his students to take part in the program, said Casey Mayville, who graduated from Sac State in 2007 with a degree in communication studies and was part of the first group to participate in the program in 2006-07.

Mayville, like O’Brien, found the first few weeks in Thailand challenging. But over the course of the year she succeeded in teaching her classes English while getting the chance to know Thailand, the Thai people and herself a little better.

“You will learn how you deal with challenging situations and you will grow from them,” Mayville said. “It was one of the best years of my young life and I learned so much. I feel that I am a better, more well-rounded person because of my time there and I wouldn’t change a thing about my trip. Except that maybe I would have stayed two years instead of one.”

Cayla Gales can be reached at [email protected].