Exchange Spotlight: University of Wollongong
When Tanner Cook arrived at International House, his dorm for the semester at the University of Wollongong in Wollongong, Australia, he was the only student there.He misread the date he was supposed to arrive at UOW, and got there a week early. This was his first time outside of the US, and now he found himself alone, living with just the kitchen and cleaning crew and RA staff. To boot, he was one of the only students from CU that was not living in Campus East that semester, the lusted after dorm known for its proximity to the beach.
Whatever initial misgivings he had about this situation were soon replaced by delight.
“It turned out to be the defining factor of my Australia experience,” he said, “Because it was more of a community and a family than I ever would have imagined.”
International House, or I House as it is lovingly dubbed, is composed of 50% Australian students, and 50% international students. While a lot of students from the US kept to themselves and didn’t explore much of Australia outside of Wollongong, Tanner ended up in a dorm that allowed him to create a tight-knit group of friends from all over the world – in addition to the close bonds he had formed with the staff because of his arrival date mishap.
“One of the cool things that they do differently there is that you knew every one of the RA’s,” he said. “They had this entire student support team, and it was nothing like how it works here – they were super cool, and actually people you could be friends with and bond with.”
During his time in Wollongong, Tanner went out of his way to experience the most of Australia, of the University of Wollongong, and the international students he was surrounded with, in the most immersive way possible.
“We went backpacking all the time. We did this 26 km coastal track trip for two days, we planned all kinds of excursions and went surfing,” he said. “Being with 50% international students meant we all wanted to see everything, and we hit it off because of that. It became this really cool community vibe, and I suddenly had this really close group of friends who wanted to do the same things I did. They wanted to travel, and they wanted to experience as much as possible.”
Meanwhile, a lot of the students on Campus East were having similar experiences to what they were used to at home, and Tanner found himself even more happy that he ended up in International House by some twist of fate.
But, his dorm was not the only thing that made study abroad completely change his life. He said that the opportunity to see the world through a whole new lens made everything from school to travel that much more powerful.
“Getting to learn at a different school, a different setting, and a completely different perspective was incredible,” he said. “I took two engineering courses while I was out there, and it was so cool to see what’s important to them in terms of environmental engineering problems and what kind of climate system they’re working with, and how that differs from the kinds of issues we talk about in an engineering classroom at CU.”
Now that he’s home, he tries not to gush to his friends too much about his experience abroad. Especially because now that he’s back, everything about home feels just a little bit different.
“It’s bittersweet that I came back here now, because it sparked something that made me realize how much more there was to see. Now I want to keep traveling and keep seeing and experiencing new places, and getting to dive into all those different perspectives,” he said. “Much as I adore Boulder and always will – and as much as I talked about it and missed this as my home while I was away – I came back and saw that there was so much more to experience.”
“The new experiences are huge, and I think people don’t realize they’re missing out on those when they settle for comfort,” he said. It’s just really cool that I went there and was uncomfortable and scared for a while, and to have those up’s and down’s on my own, in a completely different place and outside of that comfort system I had at home.”
“The new experiences are huge, and I think people don’t realize they’re missing out on those when they settle for comfort,” he said. It’s just really cool that I went there and was uncomfortable and scared for a while, and to have those up’s and down’s on my own, in a completely different place and outside of that comfort system I had at home.”
Last Updated December 2017