At the end of each participant’s program, we invite them to share their exchange program story. Bernaliza Bolasoc shared with us her experience as an exchange visitor in Louisville, Kentucky training in housekeeping operations management at Crowne Plaza.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT LIVING/WORKING WITH OTHER CULTURES?

Living and Working in US culture provides me a great experience.  I learned how to be more flexible and adaptable in all my endeavor that gave me a big chance to make new friends for a lifetime, both inside and outside the work place. I also learned that people in US are very kind, fund and loving person. That is why I quickly conquered the feeling of homesickness with my family. Also, the other important thing that I learned was to be more hardworking, patience, creative and open-minded in new ideas to have better output with my performance in doing my job.

WHAT WAS THE BEST PART OF THE PROGRAM?

For me the best part of the program is the part of training as a manager.  I feel so proud to myself that I managed to handle and do the duties and responsibilities of a manager.  I learned how to socialize with different manager in a meeting and this boost my whole personality to do my best. I was working very closely with the directors which enabled me get the best guidance from experienced employees and to get valuable insights into various fields. Reporting to employees who run the business did not only force me to fulfill tasks in a very professional manner, but also to develop a sense on how to justify and explain how and why I executed a task the way I did.

WHAT SKILLS HAVE YOU DEVELOPED FROM YOUR TRAINING? 

There are a lot of skills that had developed me from my training's. My Executive Housekeeping Manager let me experience the duties and responsibilities from the bottom to top rank housekeeping position. Because of these experiences, it developed my creativity and problem solving skills. She trained me on how I will solve different problems that I might encounter along the way in performing my duties. She taught me on how to be more creative so as to make the problems solved easily and to finish my works easy and at very best result. My level of communication skills was also improve. I learned to exchange my ideas properly with co-workers and superior. Planning skills in developing strategies to ensure guest satisfaction by always practicing customer service excellence. Also, important skills that I learned is the professionalism and supervision skills to ensure quality performance, health regulations, safety standards, and departmental policies were being met.

HOW WILL YOU APPLY THIS SKILLS ONCE YOU RETURN TO YOUR HOME COUNTRY?

When I return to my home country, I will find job in line with my training's and with a higher position because I knew now my capability on how I will perform my duties and responsibilities for that position using my knowledge and skills that I learned from my training's in US. This training gave me advance skills that I would be very useful in doing my job.

HOW DID THE J1 PROGRAM BENEFIT YOU?

J1 program made me more positive and courage to face the different challenges in my chosen career.  It widened my knowledge and developed more skills in performing my job.  I’m not only earned money but also new friends.