Study Abroad

Hi! My name is Colin Schack, I'm from St Francis, Minnesota.

I'm a Sports Management major with a minor in Coaching and I'm attending Southern Cross University.

I'm staying in Australia for 4 months. I chose Australia because it's just a great destination.

I've always wanted to experience Australia, and visit it it's always been on my bucket list, and this was a great opportunity to really just indulge in the atmosphere.

I heard about the Study Abroad program through my home University at St Cloud State.

I've taken a Growth and Development class a Physical Activity class and then Indigenous Studies class.

Southern Cross has been amazing. They offer a lot of really good utilities, like the gym on campus, the living quarters on campus and then the Plaza, which is really good for food and resources. Living on campus gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of friends with my roommates and then everyone else who just lives on campus. It's definitely a plus to be able to walk to my classes, walk to the gym, walk to the plaza to get some food, everything's close by.

I really like the location of the (Lismore) campus, it just feels really open and I just like the environment.

I grew up playing football and I still play football to this. Football and baseball were my main two sports. It's been amazing (my experience with the SCU Gold Rats). They've been really welcoming, just showing me nothing but hospitality. It's been great having them showing me the culture that the Gold Rats carry. They have a really good program going on for themselves through the coaching staff and through the players. They are just a good group of people.

The enrolment process was actually really easy. St Cloud helped a lot and also Southern Cross. They helped me out a lot by just giving me information and making the process smooth. 

The study system is definitely different. They (at Southern Cross) do terms and we do trimesters back in the States, so it's split up a little different, but so far, I've been adapting to it and I kind of like it, I kind of prefer it.

The support received by Southern Cross as an international student has been nothing but great. They've really helped me out with my classes, finding classes that correlate with my major back home, so it's been great.

Personally, I've travelled to Byron Bay. It's been great going to Byron, the Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour. We visited both Southern Cross' main campuses (along with the Lismore-Norther Rivers campus). We went to Cairns, Sydney and Melbourne. I got the opportunity to take a trip up to Moreton Island and snorkel the shipwrecks. That was really cool!

My experience has been everything that I hoped it would be.

One thing that I found out about being in Australia that's different from the States is that in Australia they drive on the opposite side but then that means that they also walk on the opposite side so it's like the mall I'm used to walking on the right side but here it's like backwards

Just do it. There's no other way to put it, just do it. I mean, it's been an amazing experience and I think everyone should be able to try it at least once, if not do it again, because I'm thinking about doing it again, honestly. It's been amazing. If you're on the fence about it, why not, I mean, it's an opportunity of a lifetime. You'll never be able to travel like this, like truly travel; you get to experience a lot more than just travelling on your own.