Everybody wants to travel and see the world growing up. Right? Why not the first place I visit be Australia?
I got accepted to the University of South Carolina (USC) during my senior year, and I knew that I wanted to study abroad during my time at "uni" (as I've come to learn that they call it here in Australia). Australia seemed so distant and exotic to me. In fact, I knew that I wanted to go to the "land down under" while I was still in high school. Whether, my visit was going to be a part of a study abroad program or independent travel I didn't know at the time. I can't say that I chose Australia to learn a new language or explore the rich culture. I guess I figured that if I could travel to Australia then I could travel anywhere else that I wanted to go in the world.
So the search for programs and how to make that all happen began as soon as I stepped foot onto the campus. USC has a great Study Abroad Office with many resources for those who are interested. The staff has been really helpful and supportive as well. In meeting with study abroad advisors and doing some research I picked Queensland University of Technology (QUT) located in Brisbane, Queensland as the university that I wanted to attend. To be honest, I only picked QUT because its name reminded me of Georgia Tech (my first choice of universities). At the time that I had done all of that research it was my freshmen year. My plan was to take my trip during my sophomore year, but my academic advisor told me that I should wait until my junior year. Best thing that I was ever told..
From there things just seemed to work out as they should in order for me to get here. Read about that whole story in the next post...
I got accepted to the University of South Carolina (USC) during my senior year, and I knew that I wanted to study abroad during my time at "uni" (as I've come to learn that they call it here in Australia). Australia seemed so distant and exotic to me. In fact, I knew that I wanted to go to the "land down under" while I was still in high school. Whether, my visit was going to be a part of a study abroad program or independent travel I didn't know at the time. I can't say that I chose Australia to learn a new language or explore the rich culture. I guess I figured that if I could travel to Australia then I could travel anywhere else that I wanted to go in the world.
So the search for programs and how to make that all happen began as soon as I stepped foot onto the campus. USC has a great Study Abroad Office with many resources for those who are interested. The staff has been really helpful and supportive as well. In meeting with study abroad advisors and doing some research I picked Queensland University of Technology (QUT) located in Brisbane, Queensland as the university that I wanted to attend. To be honest, I only picked QUT because its name reminded me of Georgia Tech (my first choice of universities). At the time that I had done all of that research it was my freshmen year. My plan was to take my trip during my sophomore year, but my academic advisor told me that I should wait until my junior year. Best thing that I was ever told..
From there things just seemed to work out as they should in order for me to get here. Read about that whole story in the next post...
Kyron S. Whitfield