COTTLESVILLE -
Twenty-one-year-old Samantha Rideout has been making some big travel plans.
She is preparing to study at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. Ms. Rideout will be leaving sometime around the end of June or early July and she will be there for two semesters.
The young woman graduated from New World Island Academy in 2006 and since then has been busy pursuing an education from Memorial University. Ms. Rideout is working towards a commerce cooperative degree as well as an English degree.
She is able to study for both degrees conjointly thanks to a program offered through Memorial University that allows students to complete two degrees in five years. The program of study also includes three work terms, two of which Ms. Rideout has already completed in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Ms. Rideout said her experience in Moncton was very interesting.
"It was different than I expected it to be," she said. "I didn't expect New Brunswick to be so bilingual. It was not like French that I had learned in school. I had done French university courses, but I went there and I was thinking this is nothing like I learned before."
While in Australia, Ms. Rideout will be continuing with her current program, earning credits towards her two degrees. Ms. Rideout said studying abroad is something she always wanted to do. However, her main goal upon graduating from high school was to be able to complete university loan free.
Several people have told her in the past that the cost of studying in another country would be at least $10,000 Canadian. So, for a while Ms. Rideout didn't think she would be able to realize her dream.
After completing her second work term, Ms. Rideout still hadn't accumulated any student loan debt and she had saved some money. She decided to study her current semester from home, via distributed learning and she applied for the Business Faculty's International Program. Ms. Rideout applied to about seven different places and was thrilled when she found out that she had been accepted to study in Australia. Due to the high competition for that location, Samantha never expected to be chosen.
"It's good because it was my number one pick," she said. "I didn't expect it at all."
This will be Ms. Rideout's first time travelling outside of Canada and she is planning to take advantage of this great opportunity. She has a large list of locations in Australia that she wants to see while she is there.
"Australia is so expensive to get to," she said. "It's not like I will be able to travel there for a vacation all the time. So, when I am there I want to travel."
Ms. Rideout has another ambitious goal for her upcoming trip - she is currently training to run her first marathon in Melbourne while she is there.
"It's during my midterm break, so it works out perfect," she said.
Ms. Rideout said studying aboard is less expensive than she had originally thought, which is very important to her because her goal is to be debt free when she finishes university.
"Now I am looking for jobs so that when I graduate I can get something outside of Canada," she said. "Now that I have had this opportunity, it has just opened everything up."
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