Danny Ghosen's Student Evaluation

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Carleton University Name: Danny Ghosen E-mail address: [email protected] Partner university: Carleton University Field of Study: Journalism Semester and year studied abroad: First semester of 2009/2010 Student evaluation

Transcript of Danny Ghosen's Student Evaluation

Page 1: Danny Ghosen's Student Evaluation

Carleton University

Name: Danny GhosenE-mail address: [email protected] Partner university: Carleton University Field of Study: Journalism Semester and year studied abroad: First semester of 2009/2010

Student evaluation

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Registration

At the last possible moment, I registered for a minor abroad. Eveline de Vroom, the program organizer, was willing to place me on the waiting list with the caveat that there was little chance that I would actually go abroad. Fortunately, at the beginning of March, I received an email and the message was very positive. I would have the chance to go abroad and experience studying in another country. The sheet listing the available schools was quite lengthy and the selection was relatively wide. My first choice country for an exchange was Canada because my sister lives there. The specific school I chose was Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. I ended up getting the place that I wanted and my ticket overseas could now be booked.

When both universities approved my application and my exchange was made official, there were still many things that needed to be dealt with including making sure to get a room on campus and to register for classes.

These loose ends turned out to be the hardest part of all to organize. The time difference between Holland and Canada, six hours, made coordinating my courses and housing extremely complicated. At that time, I was doing my internship and I could not sit at my computer the whole time to email the university in Ottawa. The website of Carleton University was not easy at the beginning as well. To me, it was like navigating a maze.

Eventually it took me around two weeks to find a room and select courses. Many of the courses that I chose at that time were relatively unknown to me. But I had no other choice than to pick what sounded appealing and find out whether or not they were what I had hoped for when I arrived.

Leeds House in the summer time. Leeds has six levels.

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Arriving in Ottawa

On Saturday, September 5th, I arrived at Carleton University to pick up the keys to my room. I got a room in Leeds House. For me this would be a different experience. I had never shared a room or a house with someone else. I was very apprehensive about this situation because I have never been that good at sharing things with others.

My roommate was a Canadian guy. This was his first year as well. We did not actually share a bedroom. We each had our own room, but we did share the kitchen and the bathroom. To be honest, I did not have a lot of trouble with my roommate. However, I would not want to do it again. It was a good experience for this one time. But never again.

My room at Carleton University This is a 2 bedroom suite.

The first weeks

In the beginning, I had my doubts about my coming to Canada. I did not feel at home and wondered if I had made the right decision to go abroad. One of the reasons that I felt this way was the fact that Carleton is way too big for someone coming over from Holland. There are over 24,000 students, both undergraduate and graduate. My university at home is not even half as big as Carleton. I felt lost and confused with no one from Holland around to talk to or get advice from. It was also a very hard task to get around campus. It is a very large campus on 62 hectares with many buildings and 5 kilometres of underground tunnels. You can get lost easily if you do not know the way. Often, I spent way too much time wandering around and trying to find the place I wanted to go to.

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After a couple of weeks I began feeling more at home thanks to the Exchange Club at Carleton University. This is a group of students who have been abroad themselves and formed the club in order to assist exchange students in meeting each other and get help if they need it.

I had the bad luck to be the only one from Utrecht School of Journalism. But at the first exchange student get-together I met some Dutch students from Erasmus University, Rotterdam. At that moment the good times started. We spent a lot of time together and helped each other to fill the gaps created by the fact that we were far from home.

Courses

When I was in Holland, I chose the classes that I thought would be useful to attend or that seemed like fun at the time. My first week saw me drop all the classes. At Carleton is that possible. A student has the ability to drop classes in the first three weeks of each semester. After attending the lectures I ended up dropping all my courses and choosing other courses. The reason for this extreme decision was simply that the information on the university's website was totally different from what I experienced in class.

I spent many hours with Elizabeth Dwivedi, the Undergraduate Administrator for the Bachelor of Journalism program, trying to find the right courses. Ones that would fulfill my expectations and make me a better journalist at the end of the semester. Elizabeth was a great help, definitely the person to go see and talk to if you are lost and confused. She knows the courses very well and can direct you to the appropriate person if necessary. The professors at Carleton are also very helpful and will do anything to help a student, especially an exchange student. They know how difficult it is to be in a foreign country and what a challenge it can be to find the course that will feed your need.

Specific courses

In total I chose 5 courses, each of which was worth 0.5 credits. The language of instruction was English for all courses. Carleton University offers Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees, as well as, certificates and diplomas. Students are given a letter grade as well as quality points or grade points using a 12 point system from A+ or 12 to F or 0. For courses with 0.5 credit hours these values are halved.

Introduction to Radio Journalism – Jour 3207

Steve Winogron was the instructor for the radio journalism course that I picked. His first words were, “You are not here to get a bad grade. You are here to learn how to do radio.” Unfortunately, many of my teachers back home think otherwise. They could learn from this professional. He was a student at Carleton University who now works for CCCC radio in Ottawa and feels like he should give something back to Carleton. He comes in once a week and passes on his knowledge to upcoming (radio) journalists. His classes are based on what he has done working in the field and his own experiences. I can say that his guidance was essential and made me work harder to not disappoint him.

Newspaper Publish/Photography - Jour 4205

At Centretown News – CTN - I had the chance to explore new things in the journalism field including photography. I had always wanted to see if photojournalism would fit me. This was my chance to find out.

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Centretown News is a newspaper that Carleton University students create. We, the photographers, went out and took the pictures for students who wrote the stories. Alexander Molnar was the photography teacher who taught us who to work with the Nikon D50 and gave us, aside from the CTN assignments, all kinds of different assignments to do for class so that we could improve our photography skills.

After six weeks of the course we had to do a photo essay. The topic was our choice, but it had to be CTN related. Alex listens to your idea and if the idea is good he will approve it and you can go out and shoot your essay.

Two pictures from my first photo essay

Two pictures from my second photo essay

Professional Practices: Specialized Media: Video Documentary – Jour 5508

I also took a Master's-level course on creating video documentaries. Due to a low number of registrations, one person did not show up, I was considered to be lucky to be allowed in this course that was given by Michael Ostroff. He is one of Canada’s best documentary makers. My team made a documentary about a Freegan named Gerard Daechsel. Gerard is a man who has been living a

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different lifestyle then most of us do. He eats out of the garbage, not because he has to, but because he wants to. Creating the documentary took lots of work and led to many conflicts amongst my teammates. To be honest, I do not consider myself lucky to have made it into the course due to the friction within the group. Nevertheless, it was a great pleasure to learn from Michael Ostroff.

Pictures taken during the making of the documentary

Government and Politics in the Middle East – PSCI 3203

This was a political science course that required lots of studying and reams of paperwork. We had to write an essay, a quiz, and a final exam in addition to completing the lengthy weekly readings. Without hesitation I would say that this was the most difficult course I took. The Middle East a delicate subject at Carleton. The course was about Iraq, Lebanon, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. To teach these subjects the professor must be careful to bring the information to the students without choosing one side and hurting the other. In my opinion, the teacher was not balanced in this manner. He did choose sides. I believe this could have been handled better. Notwithstanding, the information I did receive opened new doors for me. In that respect, I accomplished something I hoped to achieve when I signed up for the course.

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Cross-cultural experience

All exchange and international students that arrive in Canada are invited to come to a meeting where professors, students and people that work at Carleton welcome you and tell you a bit about the Canadian culture and way of life. They also tell you how to make sure that all of your academic business is taken care of and who to see that may be able to help you out with the various details.

Canadian society is a mixture of various ethnicities. During that initial meeting, different people from different backgrounds speak and tell you how important respect is in Canadian society. They tell you how people expect you to behave and how to adjust more easily without losing your own identity. There are also various people who will guide you on your way if you need some help with the adjustment process.

The Exchange Club takes exchange students to see an Ice Hockey game

The same organization took us on a tour through Ottawa. They showed us the best places in the city. They also explained the history of the city and how an exchange student can feel at home. There are lots of places you can visit and restaurants you can go to in Ottawa to make you feel comfortable.

The Exchange Club organizes all kinds of gatherings so that exchange students and Canadians can meet and talk about their backgrounds and what their experience in Ottawa has been so far. Cultures meet and greet at all different kinds of parties. This brought a significant number of people together and many friendships were born thanks to the Exchange Club.

The cultural differences

At the beginning of my stay in Ottawa, I noticed that the way we communicate in Holland is completely different than in Canada. We are more straightforward and blunt. In Canada, the people are friendlier in their ways of saying things. By being straightforward, people thought that I was not polite or even rude in the beginning. But then I explained that we communicate differently in Europe then in Canada and they understood where I was coming from.

I also think that some people in Europe, and especially in The Netherlands, have lost their manners in a way. There is much misunderstanding between the different cultures here. Not all people feel at home here in The Netherlands. But in Canada everyone Canadian and they all feel Canadian. That was very pleasant to see. In Canada, you have people from all over the world working and

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living in one place. Still, I did not see any major conflicts or outrageous incidents as a result of this multiculturalism. Additionally, it would appear that there is no particular group of people being left out of Canadian society. There is more tolerance and acceptance than back home.

City of Ottawa

It was not challenging to speak to people on campus or off campus. They were all reasonably fascinated by my background. When they knew I was from Holland, they would start telling me how they would like to visit Amsterdam—that is usually the only thing they know about Holland. Often they would mention that they would like to come over and smoke some marijuana. Canadians also love to hear stories about canals and windmills. I was able to easily have plenty of contact with people and they all liked helping out in any way they could. I felt that we could share our cultures and learn from each other.

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Negative experiences

Unfortunately, there were some negative aspects to my stay in Ottawa. The clubs close at 2 am, so you have to be at the club very early to get in the groove, otherwise you will be in and out in no time. If you are lucky you will meet some nice people that you can be friends with during your stay.

Getting liquor in Canada is an arduous task. You cannot buy beer anywhere, as would be possible in Holland. There are two major stores, government owned, that are allowed to sell liquor: The Beer Store and the LCBO. I cannot deny that some rules many sound ridiculous and overly restrictive, so as an exchange student I needed to quickly get used to these regulations or else get in trouble for breaking the law. These were the sole negatives I experienced during my five month stay in Ottawa.

Recommendations

At first I hesitated a bit about going abroad. It is a big step to take. But when I look back at the time I spent in Canada, and the things I learned and all the fun I had, then I can only say take the chance and go for it. It will be one of the greatest experiences in your life. You will develop certain skills you did not know you had. And you will get to know people from all around the world and get a taste of different cultures.

Housing

If you want to live cheaply I would recommend finding accommodations off campus. Living on campus costs a lot of money. However, there is the advantage of being close to everything if one chooses to live in the residences. You can attend classes without having to travel far. In the wintertime, when it gets really cold, you will especially appreciate being able to stay inside for as long as possible because sometimes it feels like you might freeze to death outside.

Transport

I found it to be quite easy to travel around the city of Ottawa and the university campus. You can reach Carleton very easily with different buses. The buses drive constantly and you can even take the O-Train to get down town. If you are looking for directions just go to: http://www.octranspo1.com. There you can plan your route and find maps, the travel planner is particularly helpful: http://www.octranspo1.com/travelplanner/travelplanner/.

Useful contacts

I think that most everyone will be able to find his/her own way at Carleton. The most important contacts that I used are:

Carleton University Exchange Club (CuEx) 2009-2010 Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=248065085359

Carleton University Exchange Club Website: http://cuexchangeclub.googlepages.com/home

Google Canada: http://www.google.ca

Google Maps Canada: http://maps.google.ca

OC Transpo Website: http://www.octranspo1.com

If anyone has any questions I am happy to help out if I am able to.

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Carleton University in the wintertime

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Student evaluation