Exploring Australia- My Summer Abroad

Hi everyone! My name is Astrid and I’m a second year Economics major with minors in Sociology and International Affairs.  I grew up in both Denmark and New York, and decided to come to Boston for college.

One of my favorite experiences at Northeastern so far has been going to Australia to study abroad. At the beginning of spring semester freshman year, I met with my advisor to plan out the classes I had to take for my major. He asked if I had any interest in going abroad, and I told him that I was already “studying abroad” so it wouldn’t really make sense in my case. He said he understood but that if I ended up changing my mind, it was very common for Economics majors to go to the London School of Economics for a summer term. Later that day, while exploring the study abroad page to see what the possibilities of going to LSE would be, I saw that University of Sydney (USYD) had a summer program as well.

I looked up what classes USYD offered when I got home, and two weeks within the deadline, I had sent in my application. I had dreamt about going to Australia since I was a teenager, but always thought it would be something I would do when I was much older- so I was super excited. I ended up taking Indigenous Cultures and Cultural Management so clearly I’m a big fan of culture.

Fortunately, I had two professors that were not only inspiring teachers, but also excellent role models. They approached teaching a full semester’s course load in three weeks understanding that we also needed to see and enjoy Australia as well. My cultural management teacher was raised between Japan, and Chile, where her parents were originally from. She ended up in Australia after her doing her master’s degree at USYD and then becoming a professor there.

For one of our classes, we did the beach walk from Bondi to Coogee while talking about different subjects pertaining to cultural management. But we also got to talk to our professor and learn how she perceived Australia- learning about her personal culture!  The apartment complex where we stayed also set up lots of events where you could go sightseeing or on trips around Sydney- ensuring there was always something to do.

I also had the opportunity to travel to Melbourne, Cairns and even New Zealand during my free time! Everyone else had the same idea and thought that we probably weren’t going back to Australia anytime soon so we should explore and make the most of our time! While I probably won’t go back soon, I had the opportunity to be an NU in. Liaison for the Explore Program for students at USYD. In that way, I kept my connection to Australia alive while not having to be there, and will hopefully have played a small part in someone’s major exploration.

By: Astrid Gervi Pedersen