Shelby Meek's Study Abroad at UniSC

My name is Shelby Meek, and I am a junior at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. I did the Diploma Study Abroad Program at the University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. At Goucher College, I am getting a bachelor's in arts with a Communications major with a professional writing minor. I enjoyed the community in the Student Guild and meeting people from my classes, local or international. I enjoyed meeting people and making new friends with many from the Sunshine Coast area. However, that helped me meet people, see other places outside of UniSC, and experience the Australian Culture. However, I think I enjoyed the classes the most. My classes were more based on journalistic writing, linguistics, and screen media, so more writing. However, my professors made the classes a lot of fun. We got to share stories about one another’s culture or favorite things. For example, in my CMN240 (feature writing), we got to write in different journalism styles, such as travel writing, opinion, and profile pieces. In these pieces, I was able to put a bit of myself in them. I was able to write about foods I liked, places from Baltimore that I miss, and much more. I highly recommend CMN240 and LNG210. CMN240 is a feature writing course. It was hard and new for me because I had to write in British-style English. However, it helped me better understand British English. Also, in that class, our professor told us at the beginning of the semester that we had an opportunity to publish an assignment of ours. I decided to jump at that opportunity and publish one of my assignments, which was a profile piece. I was able to get it published in the My Weekly Preview magazine both on hardcopy and online. It was also published online in the Sunshine Coast News. I enjoyed traveling to Perth, Cairns, Sydney, and Brisbane. However, I would say I enjoyed the Caloundra markets and the Kondalilla park. Caloundra markets on Sunday was always something fun to do. The people in the area are very nice and they never fail to brighten up my day. The lady I interviewed in my piece that got published is in Caloundra and I always make sure to visit and buy her 88% dark chocolates. Also, the people running the vendors always love to have conversations about where I am from, why I am in Australia, and if I enjoy it. Another place is Kondalilla Park. I love to swim, but not in pools. My friend recommended swimming in the waters at Kondalilla. The water was so beautiful and the sights in the mountains were amazing. It was a bit cold at first, but it got warmer as the day went on. Also, make sure to do the hiking trails!