Studyabroad.com Newsletters

There was a brief hiatus, but now the StudyAbroad.com opt-in newsletter is back on its intended course and is sinking into its bi-monthly routine. We will continue to supply you, our sponsors and advisors, with all the information you need on StudyAbroad.com, upcoming events, and the state of the industry. If you would prefer not to receive future issues of this newsletter, you should send a message to sab_newsletter-off@list.edudirectories.com.

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I. NAFSA Bound
II. Studying Abroad Ð A StudentÕs Perspective
III. Bringing BlogAbroad.com to the Next Level
IV. Tech Tips
V. StudyAbroad.com advisor supplies

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As everyone is well aware, May 30 marks the start of this year's NAFSA conference in Seattle. This will be our tenth year at the conference (and it just so happens we'll be celebrating our tenth anniversary as a company) so please stop by the booth and say hello.

We want to thank everyone who participated in our advisor survey. You gave us some really great suggestions and you will see some of them implemented soon.

As many of you are aware, filling out the survey put you in the running to win $500 toward your trip to NAFSA. The winner of this prize is Alexis Chaconis, the Associate Director of Admissions and International Student Advisor at New York City College of Technology.

Alexis has been involved in the study abroad field for 25 years. She has been at her current position for 12.

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Every year for the past four years StudyAbroad.com has held a sweepstakes in which three students win money toward the opportunity to study abroad. This year, a Wilmington, Delaware resident and Lincoln University of Pennsylvania student named Tonnia Harry was the grand prize winner. StudyAbroad.com gave her $2,000 and free roundtrip airfare to help her study abroad in Nice, France with Truman State University.

Tonnia is originally from Trinidad and Tobago, but came to America when she was very young so she could get a proper education. Now she has gone to France to further that education. As she said in a press statement before she left, traveling to Nice and studying in a foreign culture has been her dream for a long time.

She has sent us a seventeen-page description of her semester. The document serves as a postcard of what we hope students experience and accomplish while studying abroad. Her words could be used as a handbook for how to get the most out of a student's time abroad. Many of you have been abroad countless times, and most have studied abroad. While there, you most likely traveled to other countries and interacted with people of other cultures. I'm sure you struggled to understand those other cultures, and your experiences should therefore resonate with Tonnia's eloquent consideration of cultural understanding.

She writes, "In our classes we learn bits of information that are sometimes overlooked or taken for granted because of frequent use or simply lack of interest. One of my favourite classes thus far is Intercultural Management which is taught by a middle aged French professor with very well-tailored suits who taught the class among other things why the expression 'Cheers' (English-speaking), 'Santé:' (French speaking), and 'Mud in your eyes' (British) is used when tossing - which I found rather interesting. He declared that even though all the expressions were wishing health and happiness to someone, the latter British expression 'Mud in your eyes' derived from World War II when bombs exploded, soldiers in trenches that were just temporarily blinded by receiving mud in their eyes were very thankful to be alive. Thus when the British expression is used, it wishes long life and good health. I realized then that, in an international environment, things are taught from a different cultural orientation. This gives new meanings to things already known while adding new information to one's mental library."

We wish Tonnia all the best in her future endeavours and are proud to have helped her dreams come true. She is a great spokesperson for what study abroad means to the individual as well as its impact on an increasingly globalized world.

"I would strongly recommend anyone to venture outside of one's comfort zone and experience the inviting wonders. This experience is teaching and reinforcing the values and know how's previously taught by my parents, my school teachers, and my best teacher of all, past experiences. Being in a foreign land has challenged me to socially interact with people of different backgrounds, efficiently manage time and money, and continually strive for further self-development.

"I am also quite fortunate to be in an environment that allows a combination of mental stimulation, emotional resolution, and spiritual evaluation. For this experience I'm eternally grateful and without a shadow of a doubt I'll definitely study abroad again."

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"After a vicarious glimpse of a Senegalese healing ceremony, the tale of a drive through snowy Andean peaks, or a description of an authentic Umbrian feast, students may be reaching for their passports.

"That is the idea behind BlogAbroad, a project of the online student resource StudyAbroad.com. With three students chronicling their semesters abroad in blogs, which they update frequently, the site (http://www.blogabroad.com) is 'a living, breathing study-abroad handbook,' the company says. John B. Duncan, a product manager for StudyAbroad.com, says the blogs may convince students on the fence about study abroad that it is 'better than reality TV.'

"The 'first season' bloggers are Emma Clippinger, a Brown University freshman in Yoff, Senegal; Jacquelynn Kleist, a Saint Norbert College junior in Santiago, Chile; and Philip Assetto, a Pennsylvania State University junior in Rome. The three, who will each be paid $500 for a semester's worth of reports, were chosen from about 100 applicants.

"Ms. Clippinger's blog describes 'moments of wonder, bliss, banality, utter perplexity, and feverish delirium.' A week later she reports: 'I have now thrown all caution to the wind and ingest the tap water, salad, unidentified heavily spiced hunks of who knows what ... I guess I've changed a bit.'"

Being published in the Chronicle of Higher Education is a huge leap for BlogAbroad.com. The team behind the project would like to thank all of you for your support. In case you aren't aware, BlogAbroad.com is a new website we have created that chronicles the lives of three daring college students via an interactive web log as they study abroad in Italy, Santiago, and Chile. The website was created in the hopes of getting more students interested in studying abroad, and with your continued support we believe we can achieve this.

Phil Assetto is studying in Rome with Temple University. His blog has been particularly interesting as of late because he has been witnessing the events in the Vatican first hand. He detailed the reactions of the city prior to the death of Pope John Paul, he painted us a picture of the city after his death, and he discussed the election of the new Pope. Now his semester is over and we will be describing his return to America.

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The Internet is guilty of overloading us with informationÉa lot of information. Over the years, we have all adapted the ways we retrieve that information. Many of us will sign up for newsletters that deliver issues to our inboxes - also cluttering our inboxes can be listservs, Google alerts and often a lot of spam. Others will bookmark websites and review them on a regular basis. While it's great that we are able to access information, often it can get a little overwhelming with the amount of stuff out there and the time it takes to go through it.

After much discussion over the years, I have finally ben convinced to try RSS, or "Really Simple Syndication," and IÕm not looking back. Previously, my daily routine involved reading my email inbox and checking all my many messages. I would click on links that I found interesting, wait for them to open up in my browser and then read what I felt to be relevant. I would then return to my inbox and repeat the process. It was time consuming but necessary. A co-worker eventually suggested I try out RSS by installing a newsreader. My newsreader of choice was Sharpreader for my PC and Netnewswire Lite for my Mac. Both of which I found easy to install and at the right priceÉfree.

It took a little while to get used to. First you have to choose the websites you want to check regularly. My selection included CNet, Wired, Slashdot, BBC, SMH, EDUInsight, Yahoo! and several others. All you need to look for is the RSS symbol

or XML

which should take you to the relevant Web address you need to put into your newsreader. It's a little cumbersome at the moment but I'm pretty sure it'll get easier as new technologies accommodate convenience. Blogs tend to be more efficient. You can generally type the URL into the newsreader and it will automatically search for the nearest RSS feed. Google also has an RSS directory where you can search for your favorite topic.

These days, my morning routine is much more efficient. I open up my newsreader, scan for headlines that catch my eye and read it without having to view it in my browser. A lot of the newer browsers are incorporating RSS. The new Safari browser has started to incorporate RSS as part of its system. I'm envisioning that others are soon to follow.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Download and install a newsreader. As I stated previously, I like free and have chosen: Sharpreader (www.sharpreader.net) and NetNewsWire Lite (www.ranchero.com).
2. A list of RSS feeds are automatically pre-populated, some you may want to keep, others can be deleted at your discretion.
3. Add your favorite websites and blogs. You can search Google for a list or simply add it when you come across the website.

Hold the Windows key and hit "M". It will hide (minimize) all of your windows, and bring you directly to the desktop.

For Mac users (with OS version 10.3 or later):

Simply hitting F11 will reveal your long lost desktop image to you.

A new way to search

Do you use Yahoo and Google? If so, use Yahoohoogle (http://www.yagoohoogle.com/). It will perform a search on both and display each in separate windows via a split screen.

To get a newsletter full of helpful tech tips as well as technology's place in the current education world, please go to http://www.eduinsight.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Pens
* Brochures
* Posters
* Plastic fair bags
* Postcards
* Brochure holders (limit one)
* Adhesive plastic pockets (limit one)
* StudyAbroad.com handbooks (limit one)

If you are looking to order additional supplies, please contact Melissa Mitchell at 610-499-9200 or e-mail mmitchell@edudirectories.com.

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If you have any news you would like to share with your fellow study abroad advisors please let us know. We would be happy to post your thoughts, articles, and press releases in this newsletter. We would also like to start a "letter to the editor" type section, so please feel free to send us your comments. Just contact Matt Ulmer at mulmer@edudirectories.com, and he will feature you in an upcoming issue of the StudyAbroad.com Newsletter.

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Educational Directories Unlimited, parent company of StudyAbroad.com, produces several newsletters, specifically for StudyAbroad.com, GradSchools.com, and IIEPassport, as well as periodic news releases. To subscribe to the StudyAbroad Service Wire, please email sabnewsletter-on@list.edudirectories.com If you would like to receive our news releases, please contact Matt Ulmer at mulmer@edudirectories.com.

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Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc. (www.EDUdirectories.com) has been at the forefront of educational marketing since its inception in 1989. With a mission to be the bridge between students and educators, EDU provides several comprehensive online directories including GradSchools.com, StudyAbroad.com, EducationforAdults.com, CollegeAbroad.com, Distance.GradSchools.com, and Business.GradSchools.com. It also offers innovative services such as StudentProspector and Administrator, as well as Internet consulting services through EDU Internet Strategies. Based in suburban Philadelphia, EDU's steady growth since its inception in 1989 has led to its inclusion in the Philadelphia 100, Inc. Magazine/ICIC Inner City 100 and Inc. 500 lists of fast-growing businesses.

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