For Jasmine Chow, a junior at Michigan State University double majoring in Psychology and Experience Architecture, a scholarship didn’t just help cover expenses — it made an international, career-shaping experience possible.

A recipient of the Jacob C. Tiedt Scholarship for Internships Abroad, Chow used the award to help fund a Summer 2025 internship in Osaka, Japan, where she worked for a small company specializing in skin care and natural wellness products made from yuzu, a tart East Asian citrus fruit. Without the scholarship, Chow says, the opportunity would have been out of reach.

“It would have completely drained my bank account had I not received the scholarship,” she said. “It’s a really commendable thing to provide scholarships for students, especially for those who are in financial need.”

The scholarship was established by Jacob Tiedt, a 2000 Michigan State University alum with dual bachelor’s degrees in Economics and German. Tiedt’s MSU education was enhanced by a summer abroad interning for a construction materials company in Germany, an experience that left such an indelible impression that he gifted $50,000 to MSU’s College of Arts & Letters so other students could benefit from similar experiences.

“Spending a summer abroad is a costly endeavor. Aside from tuition, you must pay for your transportation, rent, food, and other living expenses,” Tiedt said. “It would have been a challenge for me to take advantage of the opportunity if it weren’t a paid position. Through this scholarship, I hope to make it possible for other students to take advantage of opportunities to work abroad and experience another culture.”

“It would have completely drained my bank account had I not received the scholarship. It’s a really commendable thing to provide scholarships for students, especially for those who are in financial need.”

Jasmine Chow

During her internship, Chow was immersed in Japanese work culture and spent much of her time translating Japanese to English. She speaks fluent Chinese and a “good amount” of Japanese, skills that proved essential in a workplace where language and cultural nuance were central to daily operations.

“Since it was such a small company, the work culture wasn’t what you would expect from a typical Japanese workplace,” Chow said. “There were a lot of middle-aged women working for the company who welcomed me like a daughter. They taught me a lot about the local culture, and I was able to learn a lot of Japanese from them.”

That sense of belonging resonated deeply with Chow, whose life has been shaped by navigating multiple cultures. Born in the United States to parents from Hong Kong, she spent three years living in Taiwan as a child, an experience that sparked her long-standing interest in how culture shapes identity, behavior, and communication.

Chow says her scholarship-supported internship and experiences with different cultures has strengthened her interest in studying human behavior and cultural differences, further deepening her commitment to both Psychology and Experience Architecture as she considers future graduate school programs.

“Living in two different cultures, you notice a lot of things about the way culture shapes how people behave and communicate with each other,” she said. “I’ve become more interested in industrial-organizational psychology, which is basically psychology in the workplace and is based on culture. I’m also interested in doing UX (user experience) research. I really like learning about how people interact with products and services, and that would be another route I may possibly pursue.”

That interdisciplinary perspective aligns closely with her Experience Architecture major, which focuses on designing meaningful user experiences across digital, physical, and social spaces. Combined with Psychology, Chow sees the two fields as complementary tools for improving how people engage with workplaces, technologies, and communities.

“The key word is ‘experience.’ You’re developing and building experiences for people — user experience, user design, that type of thing,” Chow said. “Experience Architecture also involves how you design buildings, how people practically use spaces, and how you design spaces based on those experiences, and how people, intuitively, move through them. It’s very broad — how we use space, how we use products and services, and web design. I thought by combining Psychology and Experience Architecture, I’d have a stronger skill set.”

Chow currently serves as President of the Chinese American Student Coalition at MSU and hopes to graduate in Fall 2026.

Are you interested in supporting internships abroad or other experiential opportunities that help students like Chow gain valuable experience? Join Spartans near and far on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, for Give Green Day, which is a chance to make a difference and to impact current and future Spartans. Learn more at givingday.msu.edu.