The Advance

Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: News

Jenny Ganzenmuller poses with a koala while

Last February, while Kansas was
covered in snow, Senior Jennifer
Ganzenmuller was enjoying the sandy
beaches in Australia.

Ganzenmuller is among a handful of students from Kansas Wesleyan University that has taken the opportunity to study abroad.

Ganzenmuller always enjoyed traveling, but the idea did not come to her until May on the way to the 2006 Midwestern Psychological Associations annual meeting in Chicago. She
and Dr. Steve Hoekstra spent most of
the trip talking about studying abroad.

"He had such a passion about it and asked me to give it some thought," said Ganzenmuller.
So she did. Once she returned rom the eeting in Chicago she rowsed the University's website section on studying abroad.

Ganzenmuller later spoke to her advisor and
it turned out it might work. So she
tried as hard as possible to make it a
go and it definitely was not an easy
task First she had to decide where to
go.
"I've always wanted to go to Australia
as far back as I can remember.
I didn't want to have to deal with a
foreign language so Australia was the
perfect place for what I was wanting,"
said Ganzenmuller.

After deciding on a country to stay
in she had to decide where in Australia.
Ganzenmuller finally decided
on Deakin University in a city called
Geelong, Victoria.

"I really like the small campus feel
that KWU has so that was my main
concern. I also looked up Geelong
and saw it was in the great location
to travel and was right on the coast,"
said Ganzenmuller.

While finding a place to study,
Ganzenmuller went through the application
process. She had to fill out
paper work and applications and had
a passport and visa to buy.

"I had about five or six months to
actually plan everything out and save For the rest, she took out a loan
through Sallie Mae.

Before going, she had second
thoughts.

"Being thrown into another culture
on your own, thousands of miles
away, was overwhelming, but I knew
once it was all said and done that it'd
be worth it," said Ganzenmuller.

After getting over her nerves and
raising all the money she was off to
Australia. She left from the Kansas City Airport to L.A. and from and
L.A. to Australia. The longest nonstop
flight was 15 hours.

Continued...

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