Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...

This is a picture that I have had on my camera that has needed to be uploaded from my trip to Australia. It was taken in the Whitsundays (the Great Barrier Reef) from a sailing trip I was on. It is pictures like this one that make me believe that studying abroad is the best thing that a college student can do during their time in higher education.

The process of studying abroad is very easy, especially through Buffalo State. I feel that people often feel that it will be too expensive or too lengthy of a process to study abroad but it is quite the opposite. The International Office makes filling out the paper work a breeze and financial aid covers most if not all of the expenses besides airfare and spending money. If you headed to South Wing to visit there office, you could have the application filled out in mere minutes and then after the orientation with Dr. Grace you have every piece of information and checklists for exactly what has to be done and when.

However, there is no price that can be put on how much you learn while abroad. I had never traveled by myself or out of country until the day my family threw me on an airplane and sent me around the world. At first it was a scary thought to think about the 3 day flight by myself or the fact I would be away from my family for six months but as soon as I woke up and saw the pacific ocean and the dolphins jumping, Buffalo was the LAST thing I wanted to see again. People are so friendly too that it doesn’t take much more than an introduction to make a new friend. From the life long friends that I have made from this experience I could travel to almost every country in the world and have somewhere to stay and a personal tour guide!

So the way I see it is that if they are going to require a bunch of useless general education classes, why take them at Buff State? As for me, I now face a choice. I am set to graduate early in December and head right back to Australia for a year of travelling however, I am contemplating staying the extra semester and studying abroad another semester to see what other great places the world has to offer before I have to begin a career.

WEB 2.0

Web 2.0, in my eyes, is a great technology. It has made it easier for people to communicate and keep in contact around the world. In my personal life I have been able to use this technology greatly to keep contact with my friends from every corner of the globe easily and efficiently. After studying abroad in Australia, I was worried that I would loose all of the great friends I had made due to the 16-hour time difference and distance. Thanks to Web 2.0 however, I can easily get online and send them a message to keep up to date with how they are doing and vise versa. While this is a great way to use Web 2.0, there is another reason to use it that is becoming more and more relevant to me: job hunting.
As a graduating college senior preparing to enter the job market in 4 months, I have found many ways in which Web 2.0 has and will greatly help me to make the transition out of college. First, through websites like Facebook, I have been able to make many great contacts that I will be able to use when I am looking for a potential job. This is good because it is easy to use and if you asked anyone, more than likely, they use one of these social networking sites. This makes it really easy to contact potential employers or the “friend-of-a-friend-who-knows-somebody” that might be able to set me up with an interview to my dream job. I think these websites are great if they are used to their fullest potential and not just to post silly pictures from a night out on the town or keep your friends up to date on the play-by-play of your life.
Another way that Web 2.0 is going to help me in my search for a career is by giving me a new outlet to market myself. Anybody who has basic understanding of how a computer works can now make a webpage. These pages can hold endless information such as a resume or examples of work. Therefore, when I go to a job interview, I can show this page to my potential employer so they can see that not only am I qualified for the job but also that I have an understanding on how Web 2.0 work; this I feel will be a growing skill that is looked for as it continues to grow.
For these reason, I think Web 2.0 is an amazing technology. While some may find this technology to be restricting and take away privacy, I have to disagree. This technology has infiltrated so much of our society that I feel many people do not even realize all of the positive attributes it has offered to not only myself but also my community. I look forward to seeing where this technology will take us in the future and the many ways in which is will impact society for the better.