UOW students spending the summer break on internships and study tours...

High-flying students gaining an international perspective

By Nick Hartgerink

Arts/Law student Anne Thomas is currently travelling through Japan on an all-expenses paid study tour after being selected by the Mitsui Corporation for the three-week trip.

Around 80 UOW students were among the hundreds of applicants from Australian universities who applied for eight positions on the three-week tour. Anne is visiting culturally and historically significant sites around Japan, and meeting Japanese university students.

Anne, who is majoring in Japanese in her Arts degree, left on 23 November for the trip.

She is one of a number of UOW students who are undertaking prestigious overseas trips during the summer break.

Cassandra Lawry, who has just completed the second year of an Arts degree majoring in History and Politics, will be travelling to Washington DC next month for an eight-week internship at the US Congress.

Cassandra is one of 12 Australian university students who have been chosen for the 2010 Uni-Capitol Internship program. She will be based in the office of Delaware Republican Congressman Mike Castle.

The Uni-Capitol program is a unique exchange program between Australia and the US which is now in its 11^th year.

Bachelor of Journalism student Brigitta Elferink will spend her summer holidays in Indonesia after winning a six-week internship with a magazine publishing company in Jakarta.

Her internship has been organised by the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS). It includes two weeks of intensive language training and presentations on Indonesian politics, history and media, followed by four-weeks working in an English-language publishing company alongside seasoned Indonesian and foreign journalists.

UOW Study Abroad spokesperson Jodie Cleaves said these high-level experiences were a credit to the students involved.

“These are fantastic opportunities for the students,” she said. “They are all highly competitive so it is a real credit to them that they have been selected.”