CAPA WORLD

In this week's post, Lorenzo discusses three excursions he's taken with CAPA to experience the wildlife of Australia, from petting wallaby at the Featherdale Wildlife park and hiking in the Blue Mountain National Park, to spending the night at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. 

In this post, Jacee shares some insight into her rewarding internship at Sport NSW in Sydney!

Over the course of six weeks I was an intern for a company called Sport New South Wales (NSW). At first, I was nervous because I do not have much of a sports background and never paid much attention to them growing up. However, this experience quickly became one of the most humbling and inspiring endeavors I’ve ever gone on and I look back in awe at the wonderful time I had with this organization.  

After experiencing a horse race at Sydney's Royal Randwick Racecourse, Martyn highlights the different sports Sydney residents enjoy watching or partaking in, from the cultural staples of Cricket and Rugby to the more unique likes of Lawn Bowling and Australian football.

For this week’s blog post I wanted to put a spotlight on sports in Sydney—specifically, I wanted to touch on my day experiencing Spring Racing on Cox Plate Day at the Royal Randwick Racecourse. The Spring horse races at Randwick were actually my first taste of sports life in Sydney and in Australia as a whole. This is partly due to the fact that I haven’t joined a recreational sports team abroad because of my distinct lack of coordination and because I have the body composition of a geriatric walrus.

But before we discuss the intricacies of track level, horse size, and grooming techniques I think it would be important to touch on two popular Australian sports that don’t have as much clout as some other sports back home. It’s worth noting that Rugby and Cricket are incredibly popular in Sydney and Australia as a whole. Both sports have National and International leagues and teams. There’s definitely a greater interest and passion for these two sports over others – I would compare it to the level of fervor and love that America has for baseball (which isn’t as popular in Sydney as it is in say Boston or Los Angeles this past weekend).

In this week's post, Lorenzo shares highlights from his trip to Gold Coast for his Spring Break, how he made it cost effective, and what his overall experience with the city was.

In the middle of the CAPA program students can enjoy a one week spring break-fall break in the location where they’re studying abroad. This is a great opportunity to catch up on anything you struggled with during the program, whether that is sleep, study time or exploring the host city. More than other activities though, the break allows students to travel and visit places that would be very difficult to get to once back home. From my program, since a majority of people had never been to Asia, most students flew to Bali, looking for an exotic experience. Others went for Pacific Islands, New Zealand or other places within Australia, maybe the Great Barrier Reef or a fascinating city like Melbourne. Where you go depends on what your budget is, if you want to travel alone or in group and obviously what interests you.

In this week's post, Martyn highlights the CAPA trip to the Blue Mountains and Featherdale Wildlife park, discussing how important it is to immerse yourself in the natural environment of a place like Australia when you're abroad to fully understand the culture. 

For this week’s blog post I wanted to talk about a CAPA sponsored trip that I went on this weekend to Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Blue Mountains. This was a trip that I was particularly excited for because as I mentioned in my introduction and first blog posts (which I’m sure you all read numerous times by now) hiking remains one of my favorite activities to do in my free time. It’s an incredibly therapeutic and relaxing experience for me and a good walk is more than enough to turn a bad day into a good one for me. Granted hiking with me involves seven near death slips, six actual slips and a ballpark estimate of close to five thousand stops for water but that’s beside the point (and myself).

In this week's post Martyn reflects on how his interactions with people from across the globe and their perceptions of him as an 'American' has changed his own perception of US culture.

I had the opportunity to experience a community outside of my host city by traveling to Melbourne this week. I decided to stay in a hostel called The Nunnery, located in the heart of Melbourne in a neighborhood called Fitzroy. Built in 1888, The Nunnery is a beautiful Georgian style building that has an amazing interior. What was really special about the Nunnery was the variety of different travelers that I got to talk with. Getting to interact with so many different cultures had me finally taking into consideration my place as an American studying abroad.

International study, especially with an internship, is an excellent way to show future prospective employers that you are willing to push the boundaries of your comfort zone and that you are able to cooperate with people from diverse backgrounds. Does the destination you choose make a difference to the type of experience you’ll have in terms of your future career goals? It can. If you are thinking about entering one of these fields after graduation, Sydney could be an excellent choice for you.

In this weeks post, Lorenzo shares his impressions of Sydney and Australian culture with a local CAPA staff member, Richard Cooper and documents their conversation.

In this week's post, Lorenzo discusses the reasons he had for taking an internship placement during his study abroad program, why he enjoys it, and the advice he has for anyone interested in interning while abroad.

In this week's post, Martyn goes over what his course load at CAPA Sydney is comprised of, discusses how Globally Networked Learning is woven into his class projects, and takes us on a virtual tour of the CAPA Sydney Center.

Mid-terms have come and gone for most of CAPA classes, so I figured that this week’s blog post should cover my academics while studying with CAPA. Along with my internship I am taking three classes this semester abroad. I am taking International Marketing, Advertising and Sales Promotion and Australian Cinema: Representation and Identity. All courses abroad take place in the CAPA Center which is located in an old TAFE NSW building (Technical and Further Education NSW) and is only a quick five-minute walk from Urbanest Housing. Since it’s hard to capture the day-to-day of classes and studying I’ve included some photos of the CAPA center in this blog to help get a sense of the environment where I work and study.