It has been awhile since my last blog, I have been busy finishing up summer school and coordinating travel plans! For the last 5 days, I have been staying in Adelaide Australia for an internship with the South Australian Special Olympics. This blog will mostly be focused on that, to show that being an ROTC cadet, you have the opportunity to study or work abroad just like any other student if you plan ahead in advance, and stay on top of you course schedules. More than likely you won’t be “encouraged” to do these sorts of programs, and they tend to be more of a hassle for your school’s ROTC program. What I mean by that is, straying away from your rigid ROTC course schedule, and the course schedule that is set for you major, makes the commissioning process a little more complicated.

But as long as you identify exactly where you want to go, and exactly what you want to do, and let your Professor of Military Science know in advance, you will be fine. But if you procrastinate, and you are not organized with exactly how you plan to work the trip, your PMS will get frustrated and you may not be allowed to go. Just act as you would once you are in the real Army, your commander needs to know what is going on so they can do their job, and if you keep them in the loop, your life will be easier.

Anyways, back to my SOSA (Special Olympics South Australia) experience. I am staying in a University Lodging or “Uni Lodging” as Australian’s call them. It is pretty nice, the building was just opened only 4 months prior to my arrival. I have my own room in a two-bedroom apartment, bathroom with shower, full kitchen, furniture and TV. I have no complaints at all. It is a little smaller than I thought it was going to be, but considering it is student housing, and also in the middle of the city, it is quite sizeable.

I booked my trip and applied for this internship through AustraLearn. If they are affiliated with your university, I would highly recommend their services. Even if they are not, and you are considering going 3rd party for a study or internship, or even a combination of both, I would check out their programs. They give you a comprehensive “To Do” list, and guide you through the process step-by-step to ensure you have a valuable experience.
My job here is to work as a communications specialist for the SOSA state office. There are local, state, and national offices, all with the same mission in mind to provide sports training and competition for athletes aging 8-80 with an intellectual disability. This is fact that most people don’t understand, is that that all of the athletes are those with intellectual disabilities.

My duties include creating news releases, newsletters and updating other media information that has already been created by the state office. I find the organization to be well organized. Each office has a guideline for what fonts colors and symbols to use. This may seem to be unimportant, but if each office was using different colors, symbols and logos, the brand synergy and brand recognition would suffer.

So far I have written some of those publications I listed above, but I also got to spend a day with the athletes at a local sporting stadium. It was a good feeling to put a smile on their faces by making the day fun for them. The event was mainly for fun. They played soccer in teams, as well as going through training stations to develop their soccer skills. It was 65 degrees and sunny, and that is Australia’s winter weather! Wish I had that back in Minnesota.
Other than that my roommate and I along with some other AustraLearn students I met have been checking out the nightlife and the rest of the city. I have only been here for a few days, and just got over my jet lag yesterday, so I have a lot more to experience that is for sure. I will keep updates in my posts on what is going on over the 5 weeks I am here!