Parrots and emus and lizards, oh my! It’s not a crazy version of the Wizard of Oz, it’s just some of the interesting wildlife that Presidential Scholar Danielle Duvick saw during her Study Abroad experience in Australia. In spring 2007, Danielle spent 5 months in Perth at Edith Cowan University. Along with taking classes that involved field trips and counted toward her ISU Gen Eds and her major, Danielle was able to travel around Australia in her time there. Over Easter break, she took a bus trip up the western coast of Australia and into the Outback where she got to go camping and swimming and even saw an amusing attempt to catch one of the world’s second largest lizards by making him dizzy.
When her semester at Edith Cowan was over, Danielle was able to travel to Sydney, New Zealand, and Canberra. She went snowboarding on the 4 th of July, took a Lord of the Rings horseback ride to see where scenes from the movie were filmed and took a boat ride through fjords with amazing waterfalls.
During her time in the Honors Program, Danielle lived in Honors House. She really enjoyed living there, especially in her freshman year. She says that it was nice to live with people who you had a lot of classes with and to be able to go next door to ask about an assignment. She made a lot of friends living in Honors House.
Danielle also participated in the Service Learning program where she volunteered at the Normal Public Library in the Young Adult Literature department. One of the things that she enjoyed the most about her project was creating a Jeopardy game for a group of junior high and high school students based on a book that they had all read. She enjoyed doing this because it was something new and different, and the students did very well answering the questions.
Danielle is currently working at an internship with SpreadTruth Ministries where she is helping with editing the publications of the organization. She hopes to finish her internship hours this summer and graduate in August with a major in English and focus in Publishing. After graduation, Danielle hopes to get her Master’s degree in English Studies at ISU.
