GlobaLinks NewsWire » arts and culture

DiCaprio and Great Gatsby Generate Excitement at International College of Management, Sydney

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:42:11 +0000

The International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS), a GlobaLinks Learning Abroad partner university, was all abuzz recently as Leonardo DiCaprio and other Hollywood A-listers took over the historic castle that is the epicenter of the Manly Beach campus.

Filming of the Great Gatsby on the ICMS campus.

DiCaprio, with co-stars Tobey McGuire, Islan Fisher and Joel Edgerton, are in Australia filming The Great Gatsby (to be in 3D). Filmmakers have transformed the historical and iconic castle building at ICMS that houses the classrooms, administrative offices, restaurant and girls dormitories to look like a 1920s-era mansion in Long Island.

For news coverage of Leo’s latest movie, check out:

· Looking Out for Leonardo DiCaprio

· Set photos of DiCaprio from the Huffington Post

· Photo of the campus transformed

A bit more ICMS/Hollywood trivia: The campus is also where Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were in 2006 and a TV episode of Master Chef (Aussie version) was filmed.

MasterChef Australia Airs Episode Featuring International College of Management, Sydney

Photo District News Features Australian Photograph Course

admin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:00:20 +0000

Photo District News (PDN), an award-winning print and online monthly photography magazine, recently featured an article about “Edge of the Outback: Photography in Australia,” a three-week summer program exploring the Australian outback landscape through photography.

Excerpt:

Edge of the Outback At LaTrobe University
Stand Alone, Study-Abroad Course in Australia

IMMERSION IN THE OUTBACK: LaTrobe University’s three-week Edge of the Outback course offers photography instruction and intensive immersion in Australian culture during summer vacation for American students.

Midwestern college student Jennifer Schmaderer had always wanted to go to Australia and figured including school in her plans was the best way to do it. “I got online and looked around for the program that was most appealing and fit my summer schedule,” she says.

What she discovered was the Edge of the Outback (EOTO), Melbourne-based LaTrobe University’s three-week travel program offering photography instruction and cultural immersion to international students.

“EOTO is a stand-alone course in which students gain academic credits while undertaking an intensive learning experience in Australia,” explains LaTrobe professor Neil Fettling. Currently offered in two sessions that run in mid-June and mid-July—wintertime in Australia—EOTO averages ten to 20 students per session. While LaTrobe promotes the program through its Web site and in YouTube videos, Schmaderer learned about it through the international study advisory service GlobaLinks Learning Abroad, which works to connect students seeking study-abroad experiences with programs that will suit their needs.

GlobaLinks’s marketing director, Deborah Morrison, explains how such services work. “We set up the right kinds of partnerships with international programs that we think will work well for students, where they’ll be well supported once they arrive on campus. We’ve worked with a number of these schools for 20 years, so we’re very selective.”

“We don’t tend to recommend one school over another based solely on academics, because students are looking for more than just that in their study-abroad selection,” Morrison says about their approach. “Although I might say ‘Here are a couple of schools that stand out in my mind,’ more often it’s a case of saying ‘Here’s a huge selection how can I help you narrow that down?’ We counsel students into the best program for them based on academics and other needs.”

Read the article in its entirety here.

Find a link to a PDF of the full article here.

Northern Michigan University’s Crystal Falvo Interviewed About Sichuan University

Stacey — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:00:45 +0000

Crystal Falvo

Crystal Falvo, a student from Northern Michigan University now studying abroad at Sichuan University in Chengdu China, shares in a recent NMU article how she’s transitioned from living in small towns all of her life to living in a city with 11 million people.

Falvo, an arts in art history major who would one day like to open an art gallery featuring artwork from around the world, was interviewed about the cultural differences she’s experiencing. She explains how she’s enjoying studying abroad so much, she doesn’t want to leave.

To read about her experience first-hand, visit the NMU article.

World News: Seoul’s Lantern Festival Begins; Wellington and Newcastle Among Lonely Planet’s Top 10 Cities

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:36:28 +0000

10-Day Seoul Lantern Festival Underway

Seoul Lantern Festival

The 2nd Seoul Lantern Festival is scheduled to begin on Nov. 5, 2010, with the Opening and Lighting Ceremony to take place at the Cheonggye Plaza and the streets along the Cheonggyecheon. The festival will create a spectacular view at night by exhibiting a total of 15,000 Korean traditional and international lanterns from 29 different regions from 24 countries around the world.

Especially, to celebrate special occasions such as G20 Seoul Summit and 2010 Visit Korea Year (with Seoul), this year’s festival will be a place for festivities where Korea and the world and tradition and modernity go hand-in-hand, by featuring storytelling lanterns by theme and various colorful events.

For more detailed information, please visit http://www.visitseoul.net/en/index.do?_method=main.

Lonely Planet Puts Wellington and Newcastle As Top 10 Cities to Visit in 2011

Wellington, New Zealand, and Newcastle, Australia, are ranked number 4 and 9, respectively, on the Lonely Planet “Top 10 Cities” in the world for 2011 list.

Here’s what Lonely Planet had to say on:

Wellington

Wellington is Cool-with-a-capital-C, crammed with more bars, cafes and restaurants per capita than New York, and a slew of gourmet producers including some 10 independent coffee roasteries. Year-round you’ll find arts and cultural events in abundance. Likewise, its film industry, ‘Wellywood’, centered on the Miramar Peninsula, is booming thanks in large part to the success of Wellingtonian Sir Peter Jackson (executive producer of the 2011 and 2012 Hobbit movies currently being made here). This little capital will be front-and-center on the world stage in 2011 when New Zealand hosts the Rugby World Cup.

Newcastle

Is it Australia’s most underrated city? Anyone surprised to see Newcastle on the list of 2011′s hottest cities (and there’s a few of you, right?) probably hasn’t pulled in off the Pacific Highway, or at least not for a while. Newcastle flies under the radar of Aussies and international travelers in part because it’s overshadowed by its bigger, bolder and better-known sibling, Sydney, 150km south. But, at around one-tenth the size, Australia’s second-oldest city has Sydney-like assets: surf beaches, a sun-drenched subtropical climate, and diverse dining, nightlife and arts. Not only is Newcastle ideally located just two hours by road or rail or 30 minutes by plane or seaplane from Sydney, it’s less than an hour’s drive west to the Hunter Valley wineries, south to sailboat-filled Lake Macquarie, north to whale-watching and sharkfeeding at Port Stephens and to sandboarding at Stockton Beach (the southern end of the 32km-long beach is a five-minute ferry ride across Newcastle’s harbour).

For the entire Top 10 list, visit Lonely Planet’s website.

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Common Language of Music Bringing Together Australian and American Student Musicians

Stacey — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:43:48 +0000

Sydney Conservatorium of Music Chamber Orchestra’s U.S. Tour Includes Oct. 26 Concert at CU Boulder

By Stacey Hartmann

GlobaLinks NewsWire Editor

Some of the best young Australian and American musicians are uniting in Boulder Oct. 26 for an historic concert blending the modern musical traditions of their home countries and other points on the globe.

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) Chamber Orchestra , in its first-ever U.S. tour, is set to perform with three American music schools on three separate stops, including the Julliard School in New York (Oct. 18), the San Francisco Conservatory (Oct. 22), and finally, the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder (Oct. 26).

Maestro Imre Palló conducts the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Chamber Orchestra.

“Every part of the world is different, and every part of the world gives you a new experience,” said Prof. Imre Palló, chair of conducting and opera production at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. “We are really excited to experience all of these different music schools.”

The Boulder performance will take place Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Macky Auditorium on the CU Boulder campus and will not be a ticketed event.

Colorado-based GlobaLinks Learning Abroad, which through its AustraLearn study abroad program is affiliated with the University of Sydney and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, is contacting fellow international education colleagues in the region to encourage them to attend the Boulder performance.

“We are excited to bring our colleagues in international education together to enjoy the musical talents of these Australian and U.S. students,” said Cynthia Banks, GlobaLinks Learning Abroad’s founder and executive director. “It is a tremendous opportunity to witness the educational power of a shared cultural experience.”

For the performance, the musicians will be sitting together one beside the other, one from Australia, one from Colorado, said Palló, a world-renowned conductor whose career spans almost five decades and numerous continents, including in the United States, where he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra and the New York City Opera.

“I hope good friendships and future connections will come out of this,” Palló said.

The U.S. and Australian orchestras will have only a few hours to rehearse together before performing, but Palló expects the universal language of music to quickly unify their sound.

“I hope it will be very easy,” he said, “because music is music. Musicality is musicality. They have very good students, and we have very good students.”

True to the collaborative nature of the performances, Palló will share conducting responsibilities with maestros from the American music schools, including Prof. Gary Lewis, director of orchestral studies and professor of music at the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Maestro Gary Lewis conducts the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Music Orchestra.

“Getting to interact with international students is a broadening experience,” said Lewis, who is also music director and conductor of the Midland-Odessa (TX) Symphony Orchestra. “The more we open ourselves to travel and interacting with other cultures, the more we become well rounded as human beings, more knowledgeable and more appreciative.”

The Boulder stop on the tour came about through connections between the deans of both music schools, Lewis said.

“I think it’s both unique and important,” Lewis said of the performance. “It is great to have cross-cultural exchanges between students and between countries.”

In Boulder, the 34 touring Australian students, chosen after highly competitive auditions, will join about 50 CU Boulder College of Music students to perform “American Festival Overture” by American composer William Schuman (Pallo conducting) and “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” by English Composer Benjamin Britten (Lewis conducting).

In addition, CU Boulder’s orchestra will perform “Variaciones Concertantes” by modern Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, and the Sydney Conservatorium’s musicians will perform “Sequenzas Concertantes” by modern Australian composer Richard Mills.

“It is really as collaborative as we can possible be without two conductors on the podium at the same time,” Palló’ said.

For audiences, the performances will reveal the rich modern musical traditions of Australia and the United States while showcasing the world-class musicianship found in both countries.

For the Sydney Conservatorium of Music musicians, the U.S. tour helps broaden and diversify their educations, Palló’ said. Such tours, which last year took the group to Europe, ensure students learn how music is made, experienced and performed in other places.

“We don’t want them to be locked into one trail,” Palló’ said.

For the U.S. students, the performance is a unique opportunity to expose them to the great musical training going on in Australia and the music of an unfamiliar composer from the other side of the world, Lewis said.

“It’s one of the great things that music can accomplish just about better than any other collaboration or interaction,” he said. “It’s unique in that we don’t get to do this every day.”

American Student Recounts Winter Kayaking Trip Around New Zealand’s Southernmost Island

Student Snapshots: AustraLearn Alumnus Finalist On America’s Got Talent; New Zealand Program Participant Blogs

Stacey — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:37:30 +0000

Voting Underway For AustraLearn Alumnus For America’s Got Talent Contest

Cam Hodges, a Seattle resident and AustraLearn semester-abroad alumnus from July 2009, is a finalist in the America’s Got Talent competition on YouTube.

The winner will get a chance to play live on the AGT show. You can check out and vote for Cam Hodges’ submission here.

You will need to click on the America’s Got Talent link near the top left of his video and then go to the Voting Gallery on that link to select his photo with a “thumbs up”.

To learn more about Hodges, who is from Seattle, check out his Facebook page.

Student Blogging About New Zealand Adventures

Eva Darron, a student at The College of New Jersey who is studying at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, is blogging about her experiences, including her attendance of the the New Zealand Culture and Adventure Program of AustraLearn.

She gives an interesting account on her “There and Back Again” blog of meeting and interacting with students from the Rotorua Boys High School during her Community Day, including students there reacted when she gave out U.S. coins.

MasterChef Australia Airs Episode Featuring International College of Management, Sydney

Stacey — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:07:55 +0000

MasterChef, one of Australia’s highest rated reality shows, recently featured the International College of Management, Sydney, (ICMS) an AustraLearn partner university.

MasterChef Australia taped an episdode recently at the International College of Management, an AustraLearn partner university.

The show, watched by 1.7 million viewers across Australia, taped an entire episode at ICMS with contestants split into blue and red teams and asked to prepare a three course meal of classic French cooking.

Visit Dailymotion to view the episode in three parts.

Tony Bilson, a top Australian chef, and Michel Roux , an international chef, mentored the teams as they cooked recipes from their cookbooks in the ICMS kitchens.

Once the cooking was over, ICMS hospitality students served the contestants’ dishes to the judging panel comprised of Matt Preston and renowned chefs Tetsuya Wakuda and Guillaume Brahimi in the ICMS Grand Dining Room.

Preston then revealed the blue team had won and all of the members of the red team now faced an elimination challenge.

View the photo above and other shots taken during the taping of the episode, which aired May 12, on the MasterChef web site.

Student Snapshots: Bond University Awards Scholarships To AustraLearn Degree Abroad Students, CBC Radio Airs Segment On College Degree Transfer Programs

See How She Grows!

Stacey — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:04:01 +0000

AustraLearn Koala Tim Tam Making Her Way Toward Independence

Tim Tam is more than 11 months old now, but still sticks very close to her momma.

At just over 11 months old, Tim Tam the AustraLearn koala is still developing her individual personality.

Now weighing 2.2 kg, the joey is still very attached to her mother, according to wildlife keepers at Rainforestation Nature Park in Cairns, Australia.

Tim Tam will develop more traits and characteristics of her own once she is weaned.

AustraLearn, which annually sends several thousand students from the United States and Canada to study abroad in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, adopted the baby koala (and her descendants) in part to raise awareness of the threat to the iconic Australian marsupial, which is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 30 years.

Tim Tam rests on her branch.

As part of the effort, AustraLearn made a donation to support Tim Tam, who is part of a colony at Rainforestation Nature Park, where AustraLearn students visit during the six-day Bridging Cultures Program.

New photos tell Tim Tam’s story best. Check them out.

Tim Tam the AustraLearn koala when she was but a wee one in February.

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EuroLearn Participants Soak Up Sights, Sounds and Advice on Cultural Nuances of Studying Abroad in Europe

Stacey — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:33:46 +0000

Bridging Cultures Program To Evolve With Each New Semester Abroad Group

The "lords" and "ladies" at the Medieval Banquet during the EuroLearn Bridging Culture Program in London included (L to R): EuroLearn Director Mona Miller, Kamryn Bagley (Dublin Institute of Technology), Patrick Warren (Swansea University), Michael Gallagher (Dublin Institute of Technology), Vanessa Bogan (Dublin Institute of Technology.)

During a recent long weekend in London, 17 North American university students traced the eerie trail of Jack the Ripper, took in the theatrical masterpiece “Billy Elliott The Musical” and feasted alongside Henry VIII at the Medieval Banquet.

It was all part of the EuroLearn Bridging Cultures Program, an opportunity for undergraduates studying abroad through EuroLearn to explore host-country culture and history while also meeting other students to share expectations, early impressions, host university experiences, challenges and achievements.

Participants on the three-day London excursion February 19 -21 had just started their semesters abroad at universities across the United Kingdom and Ireland. In addition, EuroLearn hosted a two-day Bridging Cultures Program excursion February 27-28 in Venice with three students studying at UCSC Milan in Italy.

“EuroLearn’s first Bridging Cultures Program was a little different than the traditional orientation programs of the other GlobaLinks Learning Abroad programs,” said Robin Buck, EuroLearn’s resident director. “It took place several weeks after students had arrived at their host university campuses, so students came to the meeting with some existing expertise and a good bank of experience to draw upon in group discussions.”

Jacquelyn Witz and Courtney Sewell, students from California Baptist University who are studying abroad for a semester at USMC-Milan, take in Italian cultural sites with the help of gondolier Fabio during the EuroLearn Bridging Cultures Program.

Sightseeing may be one of the main attractions of the Bridging Cultures Program, but the opportunity to meet other EuroLearn participants and EuroLearn staff is equally important. Through these new relationships, students are able to share experiences and concerns and also monitor expectations and goals of the study abroad experience, Buck said. Offered exclusively to EuroLearn students, the cost of the program (including some meals, accommodation, transportation, and excursions) is included in the EuroLearn program fee.

In morning group meetings for the London program, participants discussed academic differences between home schools and host institutions, contemporary culture and students’ observations of host-country culture, personal finances, safety and travel. The remainder of program time was dedicated to excursions to local historical sights and cultural attractions.

The London group participated in the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour about late 1800s London, walked around royal and government sights, took a double-decker bus across London to see the Marble Arch, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Fleet Street and the Tower of London and, among other sights.

Similarly, the Venice program provided participants an equally rich historical and cultural setting, with sights including the Rialto Bridge, St. Mark’s Square, and the Basilica. Program topics were discussed as the group traveled and during meals.

EuroLearn study abroad program participants took part in EuroLearn's Bridging Cultures Program in London and gathered for a group shot in front of the Tower of London. Photo, Robin Buck.

“We also sipped some divine, thick hot chocolate at the supposed first cafe in Europe, called Florian’s,” Buck said.

Going forward, the Bridging Cultures Program will remain a fixture of the EuroLearn experience, although destinations, formats and excursion details will be adjusted each semester, Buck said.

“It’s easy to get wrapped up in the energy of study abroad students,” Buck said. “We can live vicariously through them with all their adventures and find real fulfillment when we see them stepping out, challenging themselves and growing all along the way. Encountering them in the midst of their adventure was very special indeed.”

Among the London group was student Leslie Pitman of Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. Pitman is studying for a semester at Kingston University in London. She shared a few insights into her Bridging Cultures Program experience:

Q: What was your favorite activity during the Bridging Cultures Program and why?

Leslie Pitman photographed the many historic and cultural sights during the London Bridging Cultures Program. Photograph, Leslie Pitman.

It would be far too difficult to choose one activity I enjoyed the most. I thought that, between the theatre, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and the Jack the Ripper tour, we covered all of the important bases. Having already been somewhat familiar with London, I think I appreciated these activities even more. They were unique events that I hadn’t experienced yet. … As a dancer and big musical fan, though, I was very excited about and thoroughly enjoyed “Billy Elliot.” I definitely think that, no matter what sightseeing you choose to do in the future, you should keep the theatre on the itinerary. It’s something that “Londoners” and visitors can enjoy and appreciate, and it’s a big part of the culture!

Q: What did you learn during the program that surprised you?

I think that hearing about other students’ experiences in other parts of the U.K. was interesting and surprising. Hearing about how different the Scottish culture is to the Welsh culture is to the Irish culture, and comparing these descriptions with the English culture really enlightened me to the diversity that is present throughout the United Kingdom. We spent a lot of time discussing how to approach these different cultures with a humble attitude, but also how to be alert and aware of what is going on. Some students shared that they had been treated unfairly as Americans, which surprised me, because I really haven’t had any negative experiences so far. This is why it’s important, though, as we learned, to understand the culture that you are visiting, and how to assimilate with the society but also maintain your own country’s identity. Sometimes it is difficult to balance, and other times it can be as simple as not talking too loudly on the bus!

Q. What are you taking away from this experience?

My greatest gain during the Bridging Cultures Program was new friends. Meeting other students studying in the U.K. –some who had arrived only days before and others who had been here nearly two months — was inspiring and exciting. It was easy for us to connect and get along, because we were eager to share our experiences and glean from each other. It was a comfort to know that we were all in the same place mentally — that we were in this together. Also, as (the program leaders) kept reminding us, we are a unique group of students who have already stepped outside the “norm” by studying abroad; we have each gone to a brand new, foreign environment, where the only thing we know upon arriving is our own name. And, after just a brief period of time, it was obvious that we had all learned so much and were looking forward to more. I plan on keeping in touch with the friends I met during this program, and will hopefully have some people to stay with when I travel around the U.K.!