Queensland Deans List: Featuring Cameron Stephens!

If you're thinking about studying at the University of Queensland through IFSA-Butler, let it be known that each semester several IFSA-Butler students are named to the University of Queensland's Dean of Students’ Commendation for High Achievement list—the bar has been set high! More of the fall 2008 IFSA-Butler/Queensland students will be highlighted for this achievement, but I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Cameron Stephens, of Wake Forest University. Below you'll find an article that Cameron wrote that was published in the Butler Bull. It's a good lesson, and it's followed by some great pictures!

Way to go, Cameron! We're very proud.

Hey everyone, let me know what great things you're doing!
Lisa
lburg@ifsa-butler.org

Article for the Butler Bull—A Study Abroad Journal, Winter 2008

"During orientation at UQ, a school representative spoke to all the international students about culture shock and how to get assimilated to the Australian culture. He played a pretty cheesy game having everyone stand up and sit down in groups depending on certain things about you (whether you wear sunscreen, vote, like beer, etc). I thought the game was a waste of time until there were three people left standing. He had a prize to give out and he said, “Ok, come and get it”. The people standing looked confused, until one simply walked up to the front and took the prize. “There,” he said, “you win. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that it will be those people who step up and make an effort to experience the things they want to experience that will get the most out of their time here.”
Flash forward to a couple weeks ago. A friend named Maty and I knew another friend of ours who was interning in Sydney at a winery. We figured this would be a great opportunity to get a free place to stay as well as have a guide to show us around. Unfortunately, we found out on a Wednesday that his last weekend in Sydney would be this upcoming weekend. If we were going to do this, we had to do it now.

We had a group of people that expressed interest in going with us, but they backed out, scared of making such big plans and commitment so soon. Maty and I knew we wanted to do it, so we just did it. We had no idea how to get there, how long it would take, or what we would need for the trip, but we simply said, “This is going to happen”. So we sat down and found an overnight bus/train combination for Thursday night and figured we would take care of the return trip when we got there. We took a bus to the bus station, a greyhound to the Casino train station, and a train to Sydney, for a 15 hour trip.

This article is not meant to be about Sydney. The city itself is incredible though. The Sydney Bridge, the Opera House, Darling Harbor, the Botanical Gardens, all, as you might expect, breathtaking. Standing on the bridge and looking at the Opera House was one of those magical moments when you think to yourself, “I’m actually here,” and sometimes you still don’t believe it. The Sydney Aquarium had giant sharks, manta rays, and turtles in an underwater walkway and the Wild Life Habitat had koala bears, kangaroos, the world’s deadliest snake, spider, and bird (go figure), as well as a room of butterflies. To top it off, the nightlife is spectacular as well.

However, this lesson does not apply solely to Sydney. It applies to anything you want to do while you are abroad. It applies to classes, a job, a sports team, or simply making Australian friends. It means that while you are here, sometimes you just have to do it, even if you have no idea how to get it done. It means making sure you have no regrets when you are done with this experience."