It Doesn't Matter Where You Are

Daniel Ralston dressed for the SRU international fashion show.

Daniel Ralston, 25, is a junior and exchange student from Melbourne, Australia studying Education at Slippery Rock University. He was influenced to go on exchange in America by what he’s heard from his friends back home that have taken classes at schools in the U.S. He decided to come to Slippery Rock because the school matched with his school in Melbourne under the list of partnering institutions and because the classes he needed were offered here at SRU.

The differences Ralston has faced between the classes he’s been taking here at SRU and the classes he’s taken back home revolve around when education majors do their field experience. “We tend to do a lot of that early on whereas my classmates here in America who are in their third year seemed to have not been teaching in schools as much,” Ralston stated. “I liked that we’ve gotten a lot of experience in the schools, in fact I think I learn a lot more when I’m student teaching than when I’m in a lecture class.” He believes in order to become a good teacher, you need to experience teaching in classes rather than learning all the theories.

Another difference Ralston finds interesting about America is the politics. He watches different TV shows about American politics along with the debates between candidates which he pointed out the difference between political campaigns here versus back home in Australia. He said the campaigning period here is a lot longer than back home, in which here in America they start campaigning a year before the elections.

Along with the political differences, he finds the culture differences interesting as well. “Each state’s kind of got its own flavor, which I quite like,” Ralston said. “You can kind of travel around without ever leaving the country.”

He also noticed that students in America tend to go straight into college after graduating from high school. In Australia, some students take gap years between ending high school and starting college because it gives them a break from going straight into four more years of school after being in school for twelve years. “It’s a common theme back home for when you finish your last year of high school before you start university, you maybe go work for a while, or travel overseas, get a bit of life experience before going straight into school again where you’ve just been for twelve years.”

Daniel and Jungkeon dressed for the International Fashion show at SRU.

Ralston was also part of SRU’s Internations club where he met his friend Jungkeon Jo, another exchange student from South Korea. Jo became interested in learning about Australian culture through Ralston and also noticed the different slang words Australians use. He also shared an interest in American politics just as Ralston did and found themselves discussing the differences in each other’s cultures just as much as the differences between theirs and American culture.

Out of all the exchange students in Internations club that come from different countries around the world, Jo and Ralston bonded due to similar interests in music and international politics. Jo noticed that he liked the same music groups that Ralston did such as The Rolling Stones and Radiohead. “We hang out and listen to music every day,” Jo said. “We’ll talk about American politics or current international issues.”

Not only did they have plenty in common, but Jo was happy he became friends with Ralston and hopes to keep in contact with him after they leave back to their hometowns. “Thanks to him, I can understand Australian culture, which was hard for me and I want to keep in touch with him.”

But what’s fascinating about Ralston is the path he decided to take after finishing high school. He did go straight into University after high school and focused on civil engineering. Even though he decided to study civil engineering, he knew he could switch out of it later if he didn’t want to continue with it, which was another difference he noticed between colleges in America and Australia. In America, freshman tend to take general classes in different subjects such as science and English and math whereas in Australia, freshman can focus mainly on their field of study rather than a number of general courses.

After deciding not to continue with civil engineering, Ralston took an “army gap year” in which they take a few people to go into the Australian defense force in a one year contract. He got drafted into the artillery to do basic training and was in a unit in Northern Australia for around four months and realized the military wasn’t for him.

When he finished up his one year contract with the army, he still didn’t want to go back to school, specifically civil engineering, and ended up extending the gap year and traveled to the United Kingdom. After traveling and working around the UK for a year and a half, he went back to Australia and knew he wanted to do teaching and applied as soon as he could.

The map below provides some of the different places Ralston has traveled to during his lifetime. Each point on the map has a video attached in which he shares a story about how he became interested in traveling, his experience being in the Army and what he's found interesting about going to school here in Slippery Rock.

Three years later, he ended up in America through an exchange program due to the need to keep traveling. He plans on teaching math and science once he’s finished with school in Australia. His favorite year to teach is grade seven which is the starting year for high school because they don’t have middle school in Australia. Once he becomes a qualified teacher, he wants to teach overseas because traveling is something he really enjoys doing as well.

Though his experience here at Slippery Rock University wasn’t what he was expecting it to be due to what he’s seen in the movies, he did enjoy meeting all the different students from America and international countries as well. “I wasn’t too worried about where specifically I came in America because it’s not so much about where you are, the people you meet is what makes it,” Ralston said. “If you meet cool people, you have a good time, no matter where you are.”

Biography Proposal: Australian in Slippery Rock

Daniel, an international student, gives a speech on popular topics in Australia. 

An international student from Australia is here studying at SRU for the fall semester and I'm interested in finding out why. What brought him here to Slippery Rock PA of all places? What is he studying here at SRU. I'm also interested in knowing what differences he faces here that are unusual from what he's used to back home in Australia. I'm also curious about what his semester was like at Slippery Rock and what he thought of the education here. I would also ask about what he plans to do after finishing his semester here at SRU and what he'll be doing once he gets back to Australia, and even after he's done with school. From what I heard him talk about at the international panel, I think he has some really interesting facts to talk about and could help show American students what an outsider's views of Slippery Rock education.

Lip Sync Battle Finals at SRU

The final Lip Sync Battle of the semester was held on Tuesday, November 17th during common hour. Ryan Logue and Logan Stiegerwalt went head to head, battling off for the winning title. Down below, you will see a video featuring everything that went down at this battle. Along with photos and videos, there are a few helpful links to give you more information on these organizations and how to get involved with each club and the student center.

The Proposal for the SRU Lip Sync Battle CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!

Brandon Quinn lip syncing at the first Lip Sync Battle in the Smith Center.

Jill Lema, the graduate assistant for Programing at the Smith Student Center, created the lip sync battles that have been held once each month in the new student union. The first ever lip sync battle was held during common hour on September 15th in which Logan Steigerwalt, the president of SGA, won the battle against Brandon Quinn, the president of UPB. Lema's inspiration for this event came from watching it on Spike TV and decided to bring it to SRU's campus for students and faculty to be apart of during the busy semesters. 

The final battle, The Lip Sync Battle Championships, will be held on Tuesday November 17th during common hour in the lobby of the Smith Student Center. This event is news worthy because this is the first semester this event has been happening on campus and this final battle of the semester is the championships. All the winners from each lip sync battle that has occurred this semester will be battling off against each other for the championship to be crowned the best at lip syncing. 

This story could be told using a "thinglink" information tagged video by linking different videos of popular lip sync battles from TV shows to go along with a video of the lip sync battle that will be happening on Tuesday. Linking interviews from students who watched the SRU lip sync battle would be appropriate for this project as well along with interviews from the lip syncers themselves because it would be interesting to see what they thought of the competition. 

The contact for this event is Jill Lema because she's hosting the event again and came up with the idea for the event herself. 

SRU Percussion Ensemble gives a striking performance

Justin Vorp (left) and Stevie Pachesky (right) open the concert with Sossa-Bala

Slippery Rock University Department of Music presented the Percussion Ensemble concert on Thursday night, November 5th, 2015. The concert consisted of many different percussion arrangements for almost anyone to enjoy and included twelve students performing in the show. 

The show opened with two pieces by Emmanuel Sejourne which included marimbas and conga drums and lighters. The opening song, Sossa-Balla, started with one performer, then adding two, and soon there were eight performers showcasing different sounds from the marimbas and congas. 

The second song opening the show was done with lighters. Four freshman, holding two lighters each, created sounds along with a visual show by memorizing a stunning light show pattern. The room was completely dark and the only light visible was from the lighters in their hands.  

Another unique performance was "The Gilded Cage" which was played by four drummers striking break drums from cars and trucks. This piece was very loud and energetic versus some of the other performances in the show. The four drummers also used sounds from their drumsticks hitting and tapping each other, combined with symbols and tom toms. 

After performing a more formal, classical first half of the show, the performers came back for a second performance for the night, playing steel pan instruments. This half of the show was more lively and upbeat, creating a fun way to end the concert.

Sarah Sabota rocking out on the steel drums in the second half of the percussion concert

The opening song for the second half of the concert was Radiohead’s “Creep” which was a unique, steel pan performance, giving a spin off of the original rock tune. Another unique piece added to the second half was Afro Blue, in which SRU student Jamison Lopochonksy directed himself, putting his own twist on the song.

The Percussion Ensemble concert showcased a diverse sound for any music lover to enjoy, adding authentic elements that created new vibrations and tones for the audience to tune into to. 

International Students at SRU

The international students here at Slippery Rock University discusses the many cultural and social differences between their home countries and what they've experienced here in America. Students from Ireland, Australia, Brazil, China and Sir Lanka all came together to educate SRU students about their culture. Here's a few links that show what all went down at the International Students Panel.

Celebrities and performers at SRU since Spring 2014

Kalin and Myles performing at the SRUPB Fall 

Concert in December 2014.

In Spring semester 2014, I transferred here to SRU from Washington College. My first experience here was getting to meet Carly Aquilino and Chris Distefano from MTV's Girl Code/ Guy Code. Even before I came to SRU, there have been many comedians and singers and actors that have come to campus to share their story to SRU students. Here, I focused on the time that I started here at SRU, beginning in Spring 2014 until now in Fall 2015. There have been a wide variety of talent and inspirations that have visited the college and many students are unaware of these names that have stepped foot on campus for us to see and hear from. Here are the several different celebrities and performers that have been invited to SRU since Spring 2014.