Amanda Ferguson, 2014 North Queensland student blogger, writes:

Adventure is out there! That is my main expectation for this program in Australia. Other than that, my prospects are mainly filled with questions. There are sure to be koalas and kangaroos, and the dry Outback along with the wet rainforests, but what else is out there? Who will I meet? What are the predominant ideas and customs? Do they have a preferable condiment other than ketchup for their fries? You can bet I am more than excited to find out.

Amanda will soon be enjoying this view on Magnetic Island

Tomorrow I board the airplane that will take me thousands of miles away to the foreign lands of North Queensland. Soon I will actually be studying abroad. The Ohio State program I will be a part of is called Sustaining Human Societies and the Environment. I know that even with as much environmental study as I’ve done, I’m sure there will be so much more to learn. I’m sure this journey will not be limited to just new experiences but new perspectives as well.

I’ve been a suburban city kid my whole life, and even though I have a love for nature, I know my experience with it is very limited. Park forests are certainly enjoyable, but they are merely a glimpse of what this world has to offer. Human history is only the dust collecting on the statue of evolutionary history. I am only a speck in its existence, but as a speck I have the luxury of being able to explore it and observe it.

I am so thrilled to spend not only a whole program in Australia, but at the same time while I admire its beauty learn about ways we as humans can also sustain it. The beauty of being humans is our unique role to be the ones to finally admire all that earth has become. Beauty is only in the eye of the beholder. Beauty cannot exist without the eye of the beholder. I am so ready for this adventure to begin.