A cashier at Food Lion in Kill Devil Hills smiles and apologizes that his English isn’t the best. He declines an interview for that reason, but, eager to help, indicates as a possibility the cashier at the next checkout line, who is also from his home country. Chahapat Siripanishpong, a 20-year-old from Bangkok, Thailand, said her nickname is Sanya.
“I have come here before with my parents, like traveling when I was young, but this is my first time doing a work and travel program,” she said. Her family visited Los Angeles and San Francisco when she was a child — but this marks her first time coming to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She is living and working in Kill Devil Hills from May to mid-August on a J-1 Visa.
In Thailand, she’s studying to become a pharmacist or pharm tech — she hasn’t decided quite yet — but on June 7, she said she was just trying to find a second job for the summer. Siripanishpong is one of likely over 1,000 students on the Outer Banks this summer on the short-term, nonimmigrant visas. The students hail from many countries, spanning at least four continents, and play a crucial role bolstering the local workforce for the annual summer tourist season on the Outer Banks, according to local employers.
___ Official numbers are not finalized until the following year, but 1,152 students participated in the U.S. Department of State’s “Summer Work Travel” program on the Outer Banks in 2023, according to the U.
S. Department of State’s.
