Junior Physician Assistant student Ariana Aliasso checks in with the Office of Learning Abroad after settling into her new routine as a semester exchange student at the Melbourne campus of Australian Catholic University.
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I am now one month and four days into my study abroad in Melbourne and four weeks into my semester at Australian Catholic University! I live in one of the best locations since I am located inside the free tram zone, close to the Queen Victoria Market and only a couple blocks away from the downtown area. The first week that I was here, my roommates and I spent our days exploring Melbourne by visiting the Old Melbourne Gaol (a famous jail), Hosier Lane (a graffiti alley) and the Eureka Skydeck, participating in an Amazing Race around the city and attending an AFL game (rugby). Besides that, we sat down to plan some of the trips we wanted to take within Australia, including Sydney, Brisbane and Byron Bay! Our days of exploring came to a halt since school was starting up. ACU is similar to the size of Gannon’s campus, but is different than Gannon in multiple ways.
To start off, all of the ACU students are commuters. As an international student, I live “close” to campus as some Australian students would tell me, but in reality, I have a half hour commute in the morning. Any commuters at Gannon drive about forty minutes at most to get to school, whereas commuters at ACU travel on average an hour or two. I find that surprising that students do not just find an apartment closer to the campus they are going to.
Additionally, Australians fully appreciate the history of their land and recognize the Aboriginal people as the original people to inhabit it. On the first day of class, each lecturer makes a brief statement of appreciation acknowledging the Aboriginal name of the land that the ACU campus is built on. I do not believe that this is something done anywhere in the United States, where we recognize the Native Americans or the first settlers. I enjoy how much the Aboriginal people are talked about since they are such an important part of Australian history.
A third difference between Gannon, or even any US college, and ACU is the layout of classes. At Gannon, we have lectures two to three times a week and a lab, if it is a science course. Furthermore, students take on average fifteen credits per semester, which is about five classes minimally. At ACU, students typically enroll in four classes. These four classes each meet one time per week for lecture and one time per week for a tutorial. Some classes have a workshop or practical component as well. Lectures are two hours long and tutorials are either one or two hours long. The time students are in class per week at ACU is the same as students at Gannon, but it is split up differently. Personally, I like Gannon’s layout because having lecture once of week means there is a lot of information thrown at you in a two-hour period. Most of my lecturers go through two PowerPoints per lecture period. It is a breath of fresh air, however, switching up the ways classes are held.
ACU has many differences than Gannon, but both are places that I can call home. ACU has taught me what it feels like to be an international student and how a simple greeting can go a long way. I have also learned to live in the moment because one day I will have to leave this beautiful country to achieve my goal of becoming a Physician Assistant.
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