DISCOVERY: WHY PiA

Only do my, uh, my best. Let me just say that I, uh, had a very strong desire to go to Afghanistan. I have to say that my Princeton career was more defined by the experiences that I had had in the summer and in the spaces when I spent less time at Princeton and more time elsewhere. So, I was very oriented toward that kind of experience, and I came to understand that working through Princeton-in-Asia would facilitate my getting a job in Kabul, Afghanistan, which is where I wanted to go.

And to the best of my recollection, I went to see Mr. Atmore, who was then running Princeton-in-Asia—I think he founded Princeton-in-Asia—a very nice guy and very supportive. I think he had been a former prep school teacher, as I recall, before he came to Princeton. And anyway, through Mr. Atmore, I made contact with a Princeton alum who was the DCM, Deputy Chief of Mission, in the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. And it was through him that an arrangement was made that I could teach at the, uh, what was then called the American Center, which was a teaching facility—basically the cultural wing of the embassy—which had outreach to students, teaching English classes, and also it had a library and a film program and a snack bar. And it was a place where a lot of young Afghans would go, both for the classes and the opportunity also to mix relatively freely—boys and girls together—which was not something that was easily done in Kabul.

Anyway, so I, I made that first connection through Mr. Atmore, and, um, I, I forget the name of the man who was the DCM at that time, but that led to my going to Kabul.

In the fall of 2015, Austin Arensberg was living in Beijing, completing an internship. During his time there, he kept a blog about his experiences, which helped him connect with a small community of readers. Occasionally, he would receive emails from people who had come across his writing.

One day, he got an email from a Princeton graduate who suggested they meet for lunch. During their conversation, the graduate introduced Austin to Princeton in Asia (PiA) and encouraged him to consider applying. That lunch conversation stuck with him—and ultimately led Austin to submit his application to the program.

Well, as an East Asian Studies major, I was in—I guess—Gest Hall, which is, um, it's now got a different name at Princeton, but it was the same building where the Princeton in Asia office was. So I would walk through this building to go to my Chinese and Japanese language courses, and there was this small office in Gest Hall for Princeton in Asia.

It was a pretty well-known organization around town, but certainly anything related to Asia was something that I was aware of and knew about. So I was looking for ways to get to Asia. I had never actually been to Asia—I was studying Asian languages and had never traveled there. So, to me, the opportunity to go that summer was great, and I actually combined it with my senior thesis research in China and in Japan. That was a great experience.

So you decided to go—you chose this location because you already knew the languages, right? And you just wanted to gain more experience on the ground?

It was the only summer program we had—there were no other summer programs, so I didn’t really get to choose. But I knew that that was the opportunity, and I was chosen for it, yeah.