Wow! We completed our first full presentation with suits, microphones, powerpoint presentation and three part harmony. We were all nervous to a lesser or greater degree, but it went pretty well. Yay!
Thank you very much to Stockton Rotary for hosting us. We felt very welcome. They even wrote about us here. I have an inside man... Graham writes the newsletter.
I think that we probably spoke too long. The club had to skip their fines session, and Graham didn't get to speak about the new online only Rotary clubs that are springing up around the world. But everyone seemed happy with us, which was a relief. Someone (Dave Tygett) even said we were the best visiting GSE team this year! Thanks Dave. That means a lot...
Stockton Rotary is far bigger than any club I've attended before.
It has well over 200 hundred members. (I didn't think to count how many were present today, but I'd estimate that there were at least 100).
It was a formal club (necessitated by the size I think).
It was well catered (salmon, steak, salad and the ubiquitous festive asparagus).
It was active (new members accepted, heaps of guests, Paul Harris Fellowships presented, visiting GSE Teams, reports on Interact, cheques presented... and more).
It was picturesque (great view of the delta, and of a passing ship).
It was well humoured (jokes at the expense of the president, members, and others. All very well made and accepted!)
And guess what?!? Councillor Clem Lee was one of the new members inducted! Either he is following us, or there are about 3 of him because he is everywhere we go... I don't know the other Mayoral candidates, but this bloke is definitely pressing some serious flesh. Just in case you want to vote for him, there's a picture of him here.
Today we also completed a tour of the University of the Pacific.
A nice young man named Richard ran our tour. He is a second year Business Student. Professional, pleasant, cheerful. A credit to the uni really. It seems that one of his great skills in life is walking backward, explaining and pointing out items of interest as he goes, and never, ever tripping over! A good talent to have. He let us know lots of interesting tid bits about UoP. I was paying particular attention because I'm going to be back here again tomorrow to visit the IT department as part of my vocational day. Even if I only learn where to find it, then that will be an advantage!
UoP is a private uni, meaning that it has no direct connection to the state. It is funded by tuition fees, and it is not a research institution. Depending on who you believe (Richard of staff members I spoke to later) it has somewhere between 3500 and 5000 students. There are a couple of remote campuses (dentistry, pharmacy, law) so this may account for the discrepancy. Richard lives on site, as do about 50% of the students, including all the first year students. Full fees for him in the business school are about $19000 per year. Although somewhere between 70 & 90% of students are on some sort of fee reduction program or scholarship, Richard isn't. Hence why he spent his morning walking backwards and having his ear bashed by nosy Tasmanians...I couldn't make sense of Richard's explanations of his uni fees to decide whether his $19k included room and board or not. I think it did. They have a gym and lots of other students services. The costs of these appear on Richard's uni fee bill as compulsory line items. This fact may be interesting to Aussie's in this new post VSU world (for our American friends, VSU is Voluntary Student Unionism, a new law that passed in Oz a couple of years ago. Before that, uni's could have compulsory unionism, and union fees were used to subsidise many student services). I believe the gym and other services are operated by the uni, but Richard couldn't tell me for sure. There is a student representative council (by another name), but I don't think they were involved with these industries. Someone email this to Rikki Mawad (UTas TUU president last time I looked). She can sort it out...
Richard was proud the fact that UoP is one of only 6 in the country with an International Studies Department. Students in this faculty have to spend at least one semester studying overseas Do we have such a department at UTas? Or do we just have 'International' components to all out courses as they are necessary? He also proudly told us that the uni has an average class size of 19 and a 13:1 student to staff ratio.
Richard is in the middle of applying to be part of a student Board of Directors who manage a $1million investment fund. A kind benefactor donated the money for this purpose. Richard was 'pretty sure' they still have the money they started with. I'm not sure how long the investment fund has been going, but I'm not lining up to give them any of my hard earned just yet...
Lastly, a quick note scores. Just for the education of the Aussie readers. There is a standardised national test that you sit to figure out how capable you are to go to uni. The result is an SAT score. It is out of 1600 apparently, and Richard reckons you get 200 for getting your name right. A GPA (Grade Point Average) is a score determined based on your uni results. Zero is the lowest and 4.0 is the highest. 2.0 is a pass. 2.5 is required to be allowed to join a fraternity or sorority.
Non Core GSE Activities:
- visited two malls. Bought a US phone and pre-paid SIM. Didn't buy anyone any presents.
- went to the gym this morning. They look identical to those at home.
- had the healthiest food yet. Scott very very kindly went out and bought me a bagel with cream cheese, avocado and tomato. This was homage to the John Street Cafe in Perth. No bacon unfortunately, but still good. Sharon and Graham cooked a fabulous meal. BBQ Chicken (on the BBQ), cherry tomato salad, a little bit of pasta and (you guessed it) asparagus! For dessert we had strawberries, pineapple and grapes. Food of the gods.
1 comment:
Glad to see you are working hard Will. Regards
Jackie, Wendy and Gaby
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