AMCHAM Thailand Foundation Scholarship Alumni: Oranuch Songsirichai

Meet Oranuch Songsirichai, a recipient of the AMCHAM Thailand Foundation's Student Scholarship program, which provides scholarships for exceptional underserved students.

I was a student of the AMCHAM Thailand Foundation (ATF) Scholarship program from 2012-2015. The scholarship helped me a lot with tuition fees, meals, dormitory costs, and it also  lightened the financial burden on my parents. This motivated me to concentrate on my studies without too many financial concerns. It gave me the opportunity to do public activities and to see the value of the labor skills and economic trades. The ATF Career Camp allowed me to meet new people including being interviewed by AMCHAM members in person. It provided me with new experiences to prepare for real job interviews.

During my internship in the fifth year at Janjawa Wittayakom School, Chiang Rai, I started gathering information on how to apply for a job as a cabin crew. I enrolled in a cabin crew preparation course in Chiang Mai  during that time. Every Friday evening, I rode a motorcycle from school back to the Korean dormitory near the university and then took a bus at night to Chiang Mai to study for my Saturday’s preparation course, and then back.  On Sunday, I would commute an hour on my motorcycle to my internship school to continue learning again. This continued for nearly two months until the end of the course.

I was also preparing for a TOEIC certificate exam in Bangkok. The certificate gave me confidence and provided self enhancement, a requirement for many jobs. When I saw openings for cabin crew recruitment, I continued applying to fulfil my goal. Although none of my interviews resulted in a job, I gained valuable lessons and experiences. I had not given up yet.

I took a different approach to enhance myself by applying for a job in the service industry, working as a hotel receptionist. It gave me experience in customer relations, handling translation services for international guests, and customer services. My next job was with a major airline as a Passenger Service Agent. This job gave me a lot of experiences in terms of work, attitude, vigilance, communicating with passengers to solve problems in emergency cases such as sick children, unwell passengers, and passengers with severe symptoms. According to the airline rules, any of these passenger examples would be denied for boarding due to health and safety concerns, leading emergency onboard and putting all other passengers at risk, as a matter of fact, inflight diversion is also a great risk to the sick passenger. In handling these complicated issues while minimizing flight delays was a challenging task to learn; being proactive was essential.

After my work experience in Lufthansa Services Thailand handling for Etihad Airways at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, and in part gaining knowledge on airline field operations, I applied for a Thai Lion Air cabin crew position, passed all interview rounds and finally landed on my dream job.

I have always believed that if we have clear ambitions and no matter how many obstacles we face, just do not give up. Failure is always a step closer to success. Keep the faith and stay positive. Despite the hard work you have contributed, someday you will be able to follow your dreams. Last but not least, I would like to say thank you to the ATF  scholarship for supporting me during my four years of study; it really gave me these opportunities and the bachelor's degree to pursue my dream of becoming a flight attendant.