UK – Jaehyuk
Student: Jaehyuk
Course: Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science / Bachelor of Business (Sport Management)
Program: International Perspectives on Exercise and Sport Science study tour in T3 2023
International student grant recipient
Jaehyuk is an international student from South Korea.
Tell us about your life abroad.
Throughout the days of UK study tour, we have visited multiple cities in UK, starting with Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London (Windsor/Slough) at the last. Every city that we visited had a different taste and beauty on its own, particularly insightful sports-related venues such as universities and stadiums. We could acquire a bunch of new and different disciplines related to sports science, comparing to Australia (mostly in part of strength and conditioning and the management side of sports). More than that, what I mostly preferred to have during this period was building up a connection with other students, sharing insightful opinions on sports science and our pathway willingness, which cannot be easily made in daily lives in Australia. Some fellows in a group spent weekends in UK by watching several football games, hanging around the downtown and trying new dishes of UK. Even if I am the only one who was not originally based at Melbourne, as time went, everyone had been sticked together and the others really cared about me much, thankfully, which made me to be confident as an individual!
Tell us about the program you undertook.
I have been aware of Deakin abroad program since I started to study at Deakin by their advertisement and decided to do UK program which has been my bucket list to do. During the program, the majority of things were closely matched up with my expectations, but something like accommodation, distribution of time on site visits were not fully satisfied with me. But everything was good enough to learn new insights of UK sports sites! The most challenging one with me was getting along with people and program as an only one international in a group, so I would like to recommend people who are preparing to study abroad that you need to pre-investigate lots of info as much as you can as well as equip confidence on yourself all the time. Even though there has been abundant experience that will be remembered forever, there is the most decent lesson that I learnt is 'building up connections' among people. Please keep in mind that you need to interact with others to share, give and take insights no matter how you have accumulated experiences well before.
Big thanks to my parents, half of financial problem was solved by them and I cannot concisely say how much it cost due to solo travelling after exchange program.
In terms of several aspects in benefits of UK study program, there were gaining a credit point to graduate, experiencing new sports facilities that I have looked up to and learning insights on academic disciplines with comparison between UK and Australia. Most of all, however, I think that connections with peers who are into sports industry and employability as me is one of the most valuable things to add value to my studies.
Tell us about completing a study abroad program as an international student.
Travelling around the world, especially places that possess sports contexts, has been my priority to do until I die. And it is becoming true in these days and those experiences (studying in Aus, US study tour in last June and this UK exchange program) are just beyond expression that I can use. These keep making me highly motivated to study, live and desire success in sports industry without hesitation. In my opinion, one of the most important things to think about as an international student is being confident at every situation, place and people. Even though I am still learning how to be confident more, behaving with confidence can bring you with lots of advantages like connections, insights, knowledge etc.
During this process, receiving a grant could support so much (even than my expectation) my overseas program by enjoying additional things in regional area of UK. It could leave memorable moments with my peers as well as give me some presents that I can rewind of this priceless period.