O week in full swing

Rebecca Mansfield and Kristin McVea have come a long way to participate in O week – around 4000 kilometres to be exact.

The two Bachelor of Business students from Karratha, Western Australia, arrived on the Gold Coast to begin their studies at Southern Cross University last week, and have been enjoying the orientation celebrations, which this year is a four-week event including free barbeques and breakfasts, live music, yoga classes, pizza lunches, meditation sessions, social soccer, massage sessions, and an icebreaker night at the Coolangatta Hotel.

There will also be a trip to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, to help international students familiarise themselves with some of the area’s local wildlife residents.

Rebecca, who is one of 250 new students at Southern Cross University at the Tweed and Gold Coast, said she was enjoying the first week of orientation celebrations.

“In the last couple of days I’ve been to a study skills course to help me get prepared for classes, and Kristin and I will definitely be going to the course information sessions to help us find our feet,” said Rebecca.

“I came here in June to look at houses, so I have been to this area before, but I still don’t know it very well and I’m looking forward to exploring places like Byron Bay and the Gold Coast.

“We don’t even have a set of traffic lights in our town, so it seems very big and busy here. It’s exciting, and we’re looking forward to some of the orientation week celebrations – especially the barbeques.”

In the meantime, Bachelor of Social Science student Ben Kelleher is relieved he can study close to the family home at Kingscliff.

“It’s nice to be able to stay at home and I’m looking forward to meeting some new people,” said Ben.

“I’m not looking forward to the assignments, but I’d like to work for the government, maybe for the Immigration Department, so the course should help me get there.

“I like anything to do with sport, so I’m sure I’ll get involved in the social soccer sessions.”

The first week of orientation celebrations have included a formal welcome from Head of Campus, Professor Bryan Rothwell and a ‘Welcome to Kuntri’ by Indigenous Elders.

Distance education students have not been overlooked, with course information sessions recorded and photos of social events posted on the web for them to access at their leisure.

Media opportunity: Ben Kelleher, Rebecca Mansfield, Kristin McVea and Student Support Officer Joanne Olive will be available for interview and photos along with other new students at a barbeque lunch tomorrow, Friday 20 February at SCU Lakeside, Southern Cross University’s new facility in Caloola Drive, Tweed Heads at 1pm (NSW time).

Photo: (high resolution image available on request)L-R: Rebecca Mansfield, Kristin McVea and Ben Kelleher are all settling into university life.