Global Citizenship and the Purpose of Study Away: Australia (MCS)

        My sister is eight years older than me and I can still distinctly remember the summer before she studied abroad in London. Her mood was that of two extremes; absolute terror and unrefined excitement. She was excited to get away from her tiny college in Upstate New York but scared that she was going off on her own for the first time, even though if I may add, that her college sent many students and professors abroad with her. I believe that the purpose of Study Away is characterized by these extremes; the absolute terror of going off on your own, out of comfort zone, and getting out of the small school/ small town bubble, while also having the exhilarating chance to learn and experience things that would never have been possible if you had stayed where you were. The Study Abroad experience is a chance at an ultimate independence. It also gives you the opportunity to lead by example, not only by inciting others to experience the world as well, but to bring back other things that you have gained and share them with others. 

Townsville, Queensland

      Personally, I don't believe that just by studying away and becoming immersed in a culture automatically makes you a global citizen. To me, it's more of how you conduct yourself and the way you lead your life; it's what you do with the experience later. Talya Zemach-Bersin makes an interesting point in the article American Students Abroad Can't Be 'Global Citizens' about how because of the way American's look, what we wear, etc., we have a privilege or pass that people from other countries may not receive, we (Americans) cannot become Global Citizens. Talya also states that though Americans cannot become global citizens, they (we) can become globally-minded. I don't agree or disagree with this statement because I understand and agree with the fact that in some places we are incredibly privileged but I also think that it is hard to make such a vast generalization about every single American student that studies abroad in a different country. As I gaged from Michael Byers's article Are You a 'Global Citizen'? it's incredibly hard to define what a global citizen or global citizenship is. 

    Being in Australia, country heritage as a whole (i.e. not including the Aboriginal people and their history which is frequently acknowledged), though embraced, rarely seems to come up in casual conversation unless it's a national holiday. In a culture that seems so like my own at home, it's hard to feel that I have come close to any form of the 'global citizen' definition. One of the most interesting things, though this may not be exactly related, is that in some cases indigenous and non-indigenous people of Australia will embrace the city of Townsville (Townsville is where James Cook University is located) as their nation and Australia as their state. This is completely reverse of how I consider Pennsylvania to be my state and the US as my country. Though this may not make perfect sense to you, the reader, to me if one were to embrace each state as their country, with the addition of all of those 'countries' at what point could you consider yourself a 'global citizen'?