Acacia Burns, a Science/Law student at Griffith Uni, embarked on the trip of a lifetime when she participated in AIM Overseas' Global Leadership Program in Prague. Acacia loved her experience so much she's heading off to the UK this July to study our Cambridge Summer School program.
Here's an article by Acacia about studying abroad:
Take the plunge and study overseas- it’s the best decision you’ll ever make!
I love to travel! And what better way to make the most of your precious travelling time than to study overseas. So when I was offered a place in the 11th Annual Global Leadership Program (GLP) held in Prague, I jumped at the chance. It wasn’t long before I was boarding my first long-haul flight to Europe, and over 30 hours in transit and 2 stopovers later I had landed in what is known as “the city of a thousand spires”...Prague, of course!
I was now a student of Charles University (one of the oldest universities in Europe) for the next month, along with 49 other undergraduate students from around the world. After all the introductions, a welcome lunch and one “Amazing Race” around the city, we headed off into the Czech countryside to our base for the weekend: Châteaux Liblice. During this weekend retreat of site visits, team building activities and community service, Heather, our lecturer and founder of the GLP programs, lived up to her seemingly impossible promise that “by the end of this weekend you will know EVERYONE!”
The core component of GLP is the course Philosophies of Leadership, with a choice of 3 electives: Comparative Religion, Human Rights and International Relations, and Global Business. A definite highlight for me was experiencing a different style of teaching. The classes were small and very interactive. In Philosophies of Leadership we discussed what it means to be a leader by drawing on commentaries by philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Hobbes, Ghandi and Martin Luther King. Heather would often come to class in-character, playing her role so well that it was ages before we even realised! Similarly, it wasn’t long before our human rights class relocated to a nearby coffee shop, where we engaged in lively and often very passionate debates about cultural relativism, universality and the like.
In a city with as much history (and quirk!) as Prague, you will never run out of things to do. From visiting the chapel made entirely of human bones, or the communist/ chocolate/ torture/ (no joke) sex machine museum/s, to climbing the giant baby sculptures that crawl along the Vltava river. And of course there’s that magnificent castle! For GLPers (as participants are fondly known as) there’s an organised weekend trip outside the Czech Republic to Berlin or Budapest, as well as Czech film screenings and cultural nights (aka vegemite on toast nights).
Being a part of the GLP program and having the opportunity to study overseas has definitely been a major highlight of my life so far. Through GLP I met some truly generous, hard working and inspirational people, and made friends for life.
For me, studying overseas was an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone.
This program runs every year in the July uni holidays. To find out more about this program or to apply, please go to our website: www.aimoverseas.com.au or email us on info@aimoverseas.com.au
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