The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and, instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

-Samuel Johnson, Piozzi’s Johnsoniana

Time’s The World’s View of Obama’s Win

Eleven diverse countries give their reactions on the new leader of the free world: President Barak Obama.

Cecil Woodham-Smith Writing Competition

Creative writing competition gives you the opportunity to write a letter to President Obama on: World hunger, climate change, or child labor. 

Study Abroad Packing 411

Spending spring break or summer abroad?  This site walks you through everything you might need to bring with you.  General rule of thumb: Bring half as many clothes and twice as much money.

Summer Internships Abroad 

Great listing by country of summer internships!  Also link for jobs abroad.

Hostelworld

While you are abroad, hostels are a super cheap place to spend the night.  From this site you can book nights and find hostels in almost every country.

“Hostelworld.com provides on-line confirmed bookings for hostels, budget accommodation centres and package tours, as well as comprehensive content such as city and country guides.

All bookings are made securely, in real-time and are guaranteed for you.”

Scholarships-Free Money

This site has a plethora of scholarships that are suited to you.  Many can be applied to studying abroad!

Till next time…

Fulbright Graduate Student Fellowship
“Over 1,000 students travel abroad each year on Fulbright grants across a wide range of academic fields. Qualifications: U.S. citizen; graduating senior or hold a B.S./B.A. degree, master’s, or doctoral degree candidate – or young professional or artist; want to study, teach, or conduct research abroad.” This prestigious award can be more obtainable than you might think, depending on your plan and the target country. The application period for the 2010-2011 program opens May 1, 2009 and the deadline is usually in October. Plenty of time to start planning and preparing.

German Academic Exchange Service
“DAAD offers a wide range of opportunities to students, scholars, and higher education institutions of the United States and Canada, from undergraduate students to faculty, for study and research in Germany.” And you don’t even have to speak German!

Film Your Issue
A short film competition open to young people ages 14 to 24. “We want to know what issues burn in the hearts and minds of young global citizens — the next generation of leaders. We want to encourage young adults to contribute to the public dialogue on pressing issues — and even influence policy. Submit your film. Millions are watching. You can help change things.”

Global Voices
“Aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore….a vibrant global community of more than 150 active volunteer authors and translators and more than 20 freelance part- time regional and language editors.”

CNN World Report
“Provides viewers around the world with the unique opportunity to see other countries as they see themselves. The program has brought together thousands of journalists from more than 350 broadcasters in over 145 countries and territories, giving them a global forum to report the news, as they see it, to the rest of the world.“ 

Boren Awards for International Study
“Boren Scholarships and Fellowships provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to add an important international and language component to their educations.”

Japan and Korea America International Student Conferences” An intense month-long experience in which 40-80 students, equally represented from the U.S. and the partner country, live, travel, work, study, and relax together in a conference-like setting….ISC conferences are totally planned and administered by the students themselves. The students host roundtables, field trips, seminars, and distinguished speakers, working toward the goals of understanding each other better, forming friendships, gaining trust, and fostering international peace during their lifetimes.” Cost is $3,000 and application deadlines for Japan and Korea are in February and March 2009. 

OneWorld “is a global information network developed…to help build a more just, global society….The OneWorld network is driven by the people and organizations it supports — people write the news, provide the video clips and the radio stories….information that can broaden their world view and enable them to make better decisions.”  

World Summit Youth Award
If you are under the age of 30 and capable of producing something online, this may be for you.  Submissions must be within one of five categories:  “Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease; Education for all; Power 2 Women; Create your Culture, Go Green.”  

National Geographic Email Newsletters
Topics including travel, music, photography, and much more, like the All Roads Film Project, “Updates about breakthrough film and still photography from indigenous and underrepresented minority cultures around the globe.” 

Christmas gift ideas through the Carnegie Council  Having trouble coming up with ideas for Christmas gifts? Want to give something different and creative? This might help, a list of well-known organizations doing amazing work worldwide and always in need of financial contributions. Maybe Grandma would enjoy knowing that her gift this year is supporting the development of schools or health projects in another country. This website also features numerous other information and resources for those with a global mindset.

Christmas around the world
“The Christmas season is celebrated in different ways around the world, varying by country and region.”  Enjoy reading about it here in detail, with photos. Have a global holiday!

• In a temple in Myanmar:  “Foot Wearing Prohibited.”
• In a Bangkok dry cleaner’s:  “Drop your trousers here for best results.”
• On a menu in Switzerland:  “Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.”
• In a Tel Aviv hotel:  “If you wish for room service breakfast, lift our telephone and the waitress will arrive.  This will be enough to bring your food up.”

Global Quotes

“A prejudice is a vagrant opinion without visible means of support.” -  Ambrose Bierce 

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” -  John Muir 

“The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience.  Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about killing than we do about living.” - Omar Bradley, known by his WWII troops as “The Soldier’s General”

International Education Week

International Education Week is this week Nov 17-21.  Take this quiz to see how “global” you are. 

National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health offer East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. graduate students in science and engineering.  The eight-week institutes take place June-August.  The focus is on introducing students to East Asia and Pacific science and engineering in a research laboratory context, and enabling collaborative relationships with foreign counterparts. 

AID
Americans for Informed Democracy motivates young people to be globally aware.   We have a local AID chapter here.  They bill themselves as “a niche in foreign policy and student activism”.  For more information on the GB chapter contact Dr. Peter Breznay. 

Rotart Center’s University
This scholarship offers 70 individuals committed to peace and conflict resolution the opportunity to earn a two-year master’s level degree in international studies, peace studies and conflict resolution at one of the Rotary Center’s University partners. Rotary has contracted with seven institutions worldwide to provide this valuable training. It is never too early to begin planning an application for this. 

Gilman Scholarship
The Gilman Scholarship provides awards of up to $5,000 for U.S. undergraduate students at two- and four-year institutions to pursue country-based undergraduate opportunities abroad of up to one academic year.  To be eligible, students must be receiving a Federal Pell Grant at the time of application. 

International Reporting Project
Interested in international journalism and journalists?  Check out the International Reporting Project, “designed to educate U.S. journalists about global issues and to increase and improve the coverage of international topics in the U.S. news media” (Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies).

Chat the Planet
Chat the Planet is “a television show and internet community that connects groups of young Americans (ages 15 to 25) with their peers around the world, via satellite, for frank, no-holds-barred discussions about politics, relationships, prejudices, and life in general…so they can talk to each other and learn about each other from each other….Our goal is to build bonds, to confront biases, to tackle cultural misunderstandings, and to get young people all fired up and ready to act for social change.”  It’s an eye-opening initiative. 

The Stanely Foundation
Courier is an electronic (PDF) newsletter of The Stanley Foundation, “provoking thought and encouraging dialogue on world affairs.”  Topics are brought up for debate and opinion in the global realm. 

Newseum
“The world’s first interactive museum of news” features a “Cybernewseum” with current and archived headlines from newspapers around the world and links to features including “National Geographic’s Most Talented Women Photographers” and “The History and Politics Behind the Berlin Wall.”  This is a really neat site.  It’s an easy way to get your news and brush-up on current events.

Abroad view

Mission Statement: The Abroad View Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides college students and recent graduates with opportunities for discourse and initiatives that encourage intercultural and global citizenship development… Promote education abroad, global awareness, and cross-cultural understanding. Foster open-minded exploration and inform, challenge, and expand students’ views of the cultures, environments, and conditions of the world(abroadview.org)

Example opportunities:                                                                                                                                                                                        
-find out how to get a “green” passport                                                                                                                                                       
-global perspectives on going green ie: Costa Rica,China…                                                                                                                                                      –World News, Global Arts, Ethics, Stories by Region…                                                                                                                                                            
-How to adjust to coming back from studying abraod                                                                                                                                                            
-What you need to know before going abroad                                                                                                                                                                        
-International fellowships and careers

Comments: It’s a global issues site that deals with big issues in a light-hearted, progressive way. It’s a really neat site to tool around on. Does a lot of goodwill and humanitarian issues.

 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States. Founded in 1910, its work is nonpartisan and dedicated to achieving practical results. (carnegieendowment.org)

Current hot-button topic:

Foreign policy for the Next president-comparing the platforms of foreign policy of Obama and McCain.-offers a ton of resources for UNDERSTANDING the “hot-button” topics of today

ie: Russia’s Presidential Election, The Middle East, the war in Iraq, The Climate Change, ya know…the usuals.

(look under Resources for these things).

-it’s global and nonpartisan!!

FULLBRIGHT GRANT

THIS IS FREE MONEY!!! (granted you can’t buy a new car with it, but it’s still free!)

Get travel grants, English Teaching Assistanships, Business, Journalism, Critical Language, mtvU awards grants!

Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program

Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program

FREE MONEY!!!

For students showing promise to get their doctoral degree or master of fine Arts! Not a bad deal. Look at this even if you are tossing around the idea of grad school! They have projects that are in just about every field from folklore to archeology to public administration.

Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship

Intended for college kids who haven’t been able to study abroad. You can travel and work abroad for 4 to 6 weeks abroad. You must be willing to participate in US Sate Dept. Consulate public diplomacy events. This grant is an UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

NAFSA: Association of International EducatorsGrant/Scholarship to study abroad in conjunction with Abroad View, write an essay (see site for the prompts) that describes your international experience to spread global awareness in the

US.Deadline: Nov 14, 2008….coming up!!

Go Global! The International Careers Website–UW-Madison

Databases upon databases of international jobs!! See what’s out there! English teacher in Bosnia anyone?? Movie Producer in Italy?? Check it out!

Teach Abroad

Teach English to young kids in another country. This website gives you a TON of resources. Often time you can go for the summer or after graduation for a while (would look great on a resume). Site offers discount flights, housing options, jobs abroad, all you need to get set up—very user friendly.

InterExchange Foundation

Work Abroad at a summer camp. May I point out the exchange rates our currently in our favor? Sounds like a BLAST!!

In addition, we also attended the National Sumo Tournament, pictured below. You can get a play by play of the matches by renting an English headphone set.

Sunday (today for us) we will be going to the Ghibli musuem (that’s Miyazaki’s film museum). Then, if the weather is decent, we’re going to Harajuku to see the cosplay and the Meiji Shrine.

Thursday, May 22 a group of students and course leaders will depart to Japan for a 19-day travel course that will introduce the students to modern Japanese society and culture. At least one student has agreed to blog from Japan, so stay tuned…

I would like to personally welcome the new administration, Ricky Staley and Kervin Blanke as SGA President and Vice President for the 2008-2009 academic year!

If you follow the link below you will find an interesting website that provides many study abroad opportunities. Also, I would like to welcome Brianna Robb the next Diversity and Equality Committee Chair who will take over my work when the next semester arrives. I will continue to post information regarding global opportunities as I receive them. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask!

• www.iiepassport.org