-REMINDERS-

• Mail the student and faculty program evaluations back to the AUIP office – PO Box 3771, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand. Also, scan/fax/post any incident reports back to the office.
• Put your Australian phone and charger in a safe place for next year; if you have had problems with it, please let us know.
• On some programs this year, students brought draft itineraries and expected activities to be as scheduled. If you are giving students draft itineraries, please emphasize that they are drafts and they will receive a final itinerary in-country. 
• Eleanor will be visiting some partners this fall. Ensure you coordinate the visit dates with her.
• Postcards are going to print this week. Finalize all postcard details with Lee.
• Make sure you ‘LIKE’ the AUIP page on Facebook. The AUIP group will be no longer be active from August 19.

- STUDENT QUOTES-

‘l learned more than I would have imagined possible and had a wonderful time.’

– Virginia Tech, New Zealand, May 2011

‘The trip was phenomenal and the overall experience was unforgettable.’

– SUNY Brockport, Fiji, July 2011

‘The most amazing experience of my life. I wouldn’t change anything about the program because it was perfect and wonderful and I will never forget a moment of it.’

– University of Hawai’i-Hilo, South Queensland, June 2011

‘I loved this program. It was really a once in a lifetime experience.’

– University of Florida, North Queensland, June 2011

2011 Interns Announced

We launched the AUIP Marketing Internship Program to support faculty, partner universities and AUIP in the campus marketing and student recruitment for programs. We selected an intern for each university from which we received applications. These are our 2011-12 academic year interns:

Buckeyes Abroad at Ohio State: Chris Tom                                   

Deacons Abroad at Wake Forest: Kasha Patel (pictured)       

Florida Down Under at University of Florida: Hannah Strange

Grizzlies Abroad at University of Montana: Bowen Humphreys 

Hokies Abroad at Virginia Tech: Amanda Wilson 

Lions Abroad at Penn State: Alyse Horn

Faculty Advisory Council Meets

Each year the Faculty Advisory Council gathers to give faculty an opportunity to advise and make recommendations to the AUIP Board of Directors on academic programming, faculty concerns, strategic direction and program development.

Introducing  Our Logisitics Team

Sheena, originally from England, has been working for AUIP since 2008 where she worked part-time whilst completing a degree in Tourism Management at Lincoln University and then a Graduate Diploma in Marketing at the Christchurch Polytech. She became a full-time member of the team in 2011. Next year Sheena will be coordinating the logistics for all of the Fiji programs, the South Queensland program and the new Global Health program.

Sara is a born and bred Christchurch local. She completed her Tourism Management degree at Lincoln University in 2004 and has worked for AUIP since 2008. Sara has managed the logistics in almost all of our locations - New Zealand, North Queensland, South Queensland and Fiji. In 2012 she will be coordinating the New Zealand programs, including the new Service Learning program in the North Island and is looking forward to using her local knowledge to complement the programs.

Donna is the Office and Logistics Manager for AUIP and has been with AUIP for nearly five years. Donna is a native Cantabrian who is married with one daughter. Donna will be concentrating on the North Queensland programs for 2012 and will be available to help with any questions faculty may have.

Fiji Program Improvements

This year we ran the new version of our Fiji program for the first time. Traditionally, Fiji has been a popular 8-day “add-on.” Well, it remains an add-on for most students, but we increased the length to 10-days with only a minor increase in cost.

The program led students to the same favorite locations—Nadi, Coral Coast, Rivers Fiji, Votua Village and Bounty Island—but this year students were given an extra day on the Coral Coast and a wrap-up day at the program’s end. The extra Coral Coast day allowed students to finish, and reflect upon, module one (focused on the Fijian way of life) before heading to Bounty Island with module two (impacts of tourism). The wrap-up day was held in Nadi to finish module two and conclude the course.

These are small tweaks to the program that have notably decreased the intensity and provide more reflection time. We received record student reviews for Fiji this year, with 94 percent stating that they would recommend this program to a friend. Students listed their three program highlights as: village homestay (46%), Rivers Fiji (43%) and Bounty Island (39%).

Christchurch Office Update

February 22 turned the lives of the Christchurch-based staff upside down. The two months following were also trying times as we worked from home and met in cafés for weekly meetings. However, on April 21 we moved into our new “office:” a three-bedroom townhouse in a block of apartments on the CBD  outskirts. As you can imagine, it is not a typical office environment, but situated with new office furniture, a sense of normalcy started returning to our work lives.

Then, after arranging with CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority), on May 30 Laura, Kevin, Sara and Marty made the nervous trip into our old office to recover whatever possible. They were able to retrieve computers, accounts, stationery, program gear and much more.

Now and again someone from outside Christchurch asks if life is back to normal yet. This is a surprisingly hard question to answer. Life as we know it is certainly different compared to BE (Before Earthquake), but it certainly helps to have an office to go to daily and give PE (Post Earthquake) lives a sense of routine.