Wollongong, NSW, Australia

June 5th, 2018

 

So while it may look like I am just having fun with friends and traveling (which I definitely am), I am actually studying while studying abroad. So I thought that I would do a little breakdown of what classes I took. I am actually done with 2.5 of them. I turned in two of my final assignments on Friday. So I’ll break them down.

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SOC 238: Happiness: Investigating the Causes and Conditions

So this class was one of my favorites because there were a lot of interesting readings and discussions in classes. Going into it I thought it would be a class that would discuss how to be “happy” and I couldn’t have been more wrong. To be honest, after taking this class, I don’t even know if there is an answer. But it was a cool class because we talked about the effects of society, the economy, religion, and psychology have an effect on happiness. We also looked at how we define happiness and measure it, which is interesting because if I asked you to define happiness and to measure how happy you are, how would you do it? The assignments in this class included a weekly journal, a 2500 word-final research paper, participation, and a 10-minute presentation on a specific topic (don’t ask me about the Easterlin Paradox). But over this class was so interesting, I’m really happy that I took it and I learned a lot.

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MARK 343: International Marketing

This class was the only one that counted towards my majors back home, Marketing and Finance. It was a perfect class to take while abroad because I learned a lot more about Australia’s markets and how to enter them if I were to form a company in the States. But I also learned a lot about other countries, more specifically in Asia. In this class, we had case studies and readings. We had a mid-term, where almost half of the class failed (thankfully I passed). This class was the hardest class by far because of the amount of content that we covered. This is the only class that I am not done with because I have a three-hour, hand-written final in two weeks. But this class also had a group project where my group and I had to research an Australian product and write a research proposal that discussed where and why that company should enter into that international market. I had a really great group and we chose to do a skincare company, Sand & Sky, and have them enter South Korea. Definitely learned a lot in this class and group project.

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MARK 321: Creative Public Relations

Mark 321 applies to my Public Relations minor. In this class, we had a client called Living Connected and our entire class had to plan an event for the release of a pamphlet about the importance of digital inclusion in the elderly community. Living Connected is a non-profit in Australia that helps seniors learn how to use and understand computers. I was in a group with two girls and we oversaw finding a sponsor/volunteer for Living Connected. Unfortunately, our sponsor fell through, but one of the girls in my group was able to connect Living Connected to a tax office and they will be coming in to teach the seniors how to do taxes online. This group was amazing too and I had a great time working with them. In the end, the event went really well and I’m sure that Living Connected will have a long future ahead of it. We also had multiple papers and proposals to write for the final project and about public relations skills we learned about.

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Cava 124: Intro to Photography  

I loved this class, but it was a lot of work. I have never used the camera that was used for this class (Canon 600D) and that was a huge learning curve of figuring out the camera and then figuring out what I want to photograph for it. I also only had this class once a week and I had it from 4:30 PM to 8:30 PM, which means I will never complain about a 2.5-hour class ever again. I also had to rent a camera which meant carrying gear and organizing my photoshoots when cameras were available. The guys who worked at the tech center were super nice and knew my name because I was there so often. I already had huge respect for photographers, but I had no idea how much work there was behind the scenes. I’ll attach photos from my final collection. I also had to do weekly assignments, write a paper, and have a photography journal that required research of photographers, notes from classes, and reflections.

 

I really enjoyed all of the classes this semester and I am really sand to see them end. Although, I am really excited to start working on my finance degree again because I don’t know if I can handle another semester of writing papers. I need math again in my life. I also had the best group project experiences and I’m really thankful for that because both groups helped me out with figuring out Australian grammar and information that I would need to know as an international student. These classes also had fewer assignments, but they were worth a lot more of my grade, so quality over quantity. I think it will be hard to adjust back to how the university works back home and I’m so thankful that I got to experience a different university.

 

Wish me luck for that 3-hour final.

 

Cheers,

Wandering in Wollongong

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University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

March 2, 2018

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Okay! So hello again. I’m back and I survived my first week of school at the University of Wollongong. Well...technically half of it because of how the classes work. So that’s what today’s blog is going to be about…school and how it is crazy different.

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In the last post, I wrote a little bit about how we have lectures and tutorials. So, for most of my classes, I have 2-hour lectures and 1-hour tutorials. The tutorials start next week so I can’t go into much detail on them yet but so far, the lectures have been really interesting and some are recorded so you don’t have to go to lectures, but I plan on going to them just in case I need to talk to the professor or have questions. I have one class that is four hours and it is for my photography class, so it’s a lecture and tutorial that takes place once a week.

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Each class is six credits which equal out to four credits in the States. You also don’t earn A-F’s, you earn High Distinction, Distinction, Credit, Pass and Fail.  An HD is an A+, D is an A/B, C is a B/C and I’m not sure what a pass equals out to, but a Fail is an F. They are also stricter on how they grade from my understanding. So be aware of that if you’re thinking of studying in Australia.

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I am taking three classes that will apply to my major and minor and one class for fun. For my major I am taking International Marketing, for my minor, I am taking Creative PR Campaigns and Photography and for fun, I am taking Happiness (the sociology behind it and society). I’m enrolled in 5 classes but once one of my classes is approved (since I am international students, all my classes must be looked at by a faculty member to see if I qualify to take it), I will be dropping the 5th one, which is Australian History and Culture. I’m kind of bummed to drop that class but I don’t want to be taking an equivalent of 20 credits while abroad. I have classes 5 days a week but it’s usually only for a couple of hours, and the campus here is beautiful, so I don’t mind it!

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Even though I’m not a fan of group projects, when I was choosing my classes, I picked ones that had a group project in the description because I knew that would be a way that I would meet people and could work with other students. Also, I figured out which classes would transfer to NAU before I left and that has saved me a lot of headaches because I know students who waited to pick classes until they were here and then they couldn’t take anything that would transfer over. So if you are studying abroad, work with your adviser before you leave!!

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That’s all for now!

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Cheers,

Wandering in Wollongong