The 18-year-old will fly out to the Third World nation this Saturday to take part in a gap year program volunteering as a teacher’s assistant at a Vung Tau primary school.

The five-month trip has been planned for well over a year and she couldn’t be more excited to set foot in a whole new world.

“I’ve never been on a plane or seen anything like this,s” she said. “It will be an experience to see it and help out where I can.”

Under the program, run by Lattitude Global Volunteering,

Miss Turner said she had a choice of a number of countries in which to work, including the UK and Canada.

However, she said she chose Vietnam for its uniqueness.

“I wanted somewhere with a different culture and I wanted to learn another language. Those have been on my bucket list,” she said.

With basic Vietnamese under her belt, she will be assisting a teacher in class on a day-to-day basis and hopes to travel the length of Vietnam.

On her return to Australia in February 2011, she will begin studying teaching at Charles Sturt University.