Study Abroad provides student opportunities

According to a recent study by Open Doors, part of the international Institute of International Education, only 241,791 studied abroad in 2007, roughly 1 percent of the number of students attending college in the United States. MTSU’s MT Abroad Office can help students get started on their international adventures by lining them up with the right program, scholarships, and requirements. Before going into the office, however, its a good idea to know what’s out there to help narrow down what you want out of a study abroad program.

The Institute for Study Abroad offers a wide variety of program explanations, country information and resources for those who are still trying to narrow down which countries they would like to travel to. The site Studyabroad.com also serves this function, offering a variety of programs from high school to teaching abroad to summer visits, internships, and volunteer work. Goabroad.com offers advice on scholarships, documentation, hostels, airfare and the latest news on study abroad programs.

Checking out the US State Department‘s site and the CIA World Factbook will give you the latest information about every country in the world, US relations with that country, and the State Deparment even offers a special section with advice for students who are considering abroad travel. These sites will give you everything you need to know about countries, including vaccinations, political climate, social status, and any information US citizens need to be aware of.

There are several well known programs that facilitate study abroad. The Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE) offers programs from Argentina to Vietnam for students to partake in. International Student Exchange Programs or (ISEP) offers worldwide programs with major focuses in parts of Europe and South America. The Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS) is a program that specializes in students who want to speak another language while abroad, with programs in countries where a certain amount of language knowledge is required. The Cooperative Center for Study Abroad (CCSA) is a program offers a lot of programs in former British colonies such as South Africa, India, Hong Kong, as well as opporutnites throughout the UK and Northern Ireland, in addition to several other programs.

Whatever program you choose, studying abroad is an experience that you’ll never forget.

UN Summit Ends with Planet in Peril

Today, the UN climate summit in Poznan, Poland came to an end, as the BBC News reported. Earlier this week, the BBC reported the struggles that the summit was facing in this article and now the summit has concluded in the usual one step forward, two steps back fashion. The summit managed to accomplish figuring out how to distribute funds, starting up a program to help bring low-carbon technologies, agreed to parameters to decrease deforestation, and decided that emissions need to peak and then decline in the next 10-15 years. To explain the environmental processes they talked about, the BBC offered this piece of multimedia, which explains carbon cycles, greenhouse emissions, and climate change. Naturally, Greenpeace International has been covering the UN Climate Summit, along with other pressing environmental issues.

The UN Climate Summit ends just in time for CNN’s premiere of their special “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines” last night. The two hour long program provides a lot of problems but very little solution to the environ metal issues plaguing the world. The special, featuring the journalistic work of Andersoon Cooper, Lisa Ling, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, travels the world, showing where the battle lines are being drawn in the worldwide environmental fight. The issue is much more complex than it appears on the surface, involving warlords, multinational panels of world leaders, underprivileged people living in poverty, multibillion dollar corporations, exotic animals, terrorism, scientists, environmentalists, and the common man, both at home and abroad. The special discusses a Nigerian oil pipeline run by Shell oil, allowed to spew for 6 months in a spill 10 times that of the Exxon-Valdez spill and how Nigerian militants are fighting their government over the pipeline. It talks about children in Peru being subjected to lead poisoningbecause of DoeRun facilities though the same facilities in America have recently been made safe for local American children.

Sharks being hunted to death, dying Mountain Gorillas numbering around 250 and elephants being savagely hunted and killed for ivory were just a few of the animal issues the program covered. These animals, it was reported, aren’t just missed because of their cuteness factors but also because their destruction leads to the upheaval of entire ecosystems, eventually leading to the ruin of the people who rely on those ecosystems for resources. The 360 Blog from CNN details the particular issues involving animals discussed during the program and since.

Earlier this week, the New York times did this report about how 1/5 of the worlds coral reefs have been lost and many more are endangered. They also have this video posted about how pine beetles are destroying American forests. The environment has been in the news over and over again in the past few years, though it seems the more that is reported on it, the less that is actually done. Sometimes, it seems that the public has grown weary of listening to all the perils our planet is in, but instead of doing something about it, they just change the channel or go to another website.

At any rate, we have the UN Climate Summit for next year, to be held in Copenhagen, Demark. Maybe next time, we’ll get more done.