Welcome To Australia

Dear family, friends, and teachers,

If this is the first time you are hearing that I am heading to Australia, that's because all of this happened very last minute. I have wanted to go to Australia for a very long time, but I didn't expect the opportunity to come so quickly. 

Here's the quick facts of my trip:

Where: James Cook University in Townsville 

Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef.

To see a quick video tour of some of the James Cook facilities, go to: http://www.jcu.edu.au/international/JCU_114266.html

Sunset from Castle Hill over Townsville City.

How long: February to late June

Why:

As many of you know, I am very interested in sharks, yet have no desire to do research work. Last year, I took a tourism class at University of New England and wrote a term paper on cage diving tourism. I also had the chance to interview Luke Tipple, a shark diving expert (see a few posts below). This sparked an idea that tourism could possibly be what I want to do as a career or at least part of my career. Tourism is appealing to me because it incorporates everything I love about marine biology: hands on work, being out on the ocean, meeting new people, educating people, assisting in data collection for researchers, and working to create a sustainable ocean. 

Several factors influenced my decision to apply to James Cook in Townsville; location, the opportunities this institute offers, and my future career goals:

The close proximity of the Great Barrier Reef to the University is a huge draw. I got SCUBA certified over the summer and have not had the chance to go diving since. As a marine biologist, SCUBA diving will likely be a component to any work I am doing, from tagging sharks to cleaning an aquarium tank. Maine has a limited dive season and in order to gain confidence and experience I need to have access and opportunity to dive. James Cook's location provides that for me.

The opportunity for hands on learning is tremendously exciting. From 6^th to 8^th grade I was fortunate to attend a charter school whose curriculum was built around environmental sustainability and social justice utilizing project based learning. It was in this atmosphere that I became aware that ‘hands on’/ project based learning is not only how I best learn, understand, and retain information, but what makes learning most exciting. I have read about James Cook taking students out onto the Great Barrier Reef and learning about tourism from people who are currently working in that field. James Cook will allow me to gain some real world experience that will be invaluable in the future.

When I applied I figured it was worth trying, but I didn't expect it would all work out... The crazy thing was, somehow it all fell into place: 

On February 7th I'm headed out. I will keep you posted on what I am up to on this blog, but feel free to email, Facebook, or Skype me as well!  

Thanks to everyone for all their help and support in getting me to where I am today

~ST