All the way from the Alaskan bush to the mountains of Colorado to the great city of Dallas. From Europe to Asia to Africa to Australia and soon to South America. From racing up the Great Wall of China to riding ostriches in South Africa to commercial fishing off the Aleutian Chain and skiing in the Swiss Alps, travel and study abroad have taken me to many parts of the world. Traveling teaches unforgettable lessons – including that global adventures can be found at home-and everywhere else– if you look for them.
At SMU, for example, I’ve been a member of the track and cross-country team for more than three years. It has given me ample opportunity to travel the country and meet runners from all over. And I’ve learned that running is its own cultural experience. Running through the parks of Shanghai, for instance, I observed how the locals started their day with exercise and art- and how some would yell to me, “Water!” as if to say, “You look like you’re going to die. Let me help.” No matter where you are in the world, you only need your shoes.
Also at SMU, I had the great opportunity to cultivate my lifelong passion for travel and study abroad in the Asia-Australia summer program. We explored wartime tunnels in Vietnam, learned the history of Tiananmen Square, surfed and studied leadership in Australia.
In learning about other cultures, we learned about ourselves- our goals and resolve, our strengths and weaknesses. We learned how small we are in comparison to the world at large. We became more tolerant, going beyond the constraints of our culture and customs to experience the way others live. It’s not so much about how many places you have been to or where you’re going but what you do with that experience while you’re there and when you return.
During your years here, I urge you to look for international adventures. That may mean a trip to the Education Abroad Office to explore your options, just eating dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in Dallas, meeting international students on campus, applying for international fellowships like the Fulbright, visiting the Meadows Museum to soak up international art, or just taking a class on foreign studies. International marketing was one of my favorite classes.
If you have the heart for exploring, the passion for adventure and the will to adapt, nothing is out of reach. As I like to say, get off the couch, turn off the boob-tube, shut the book, and take a journey: a personal journey of international discoveries. What have you got to lose?
As for me, a senior in the home stretch and facing the “real world,” I’m hoping to build on my global adventures and inspire others to do the same. The world-renowned student travel agency STA is seeking two interns to travel the globe and document their experiences. If I am chosen, I’ll be back in touch through blogs and video from who knows where.
Sierra Anderson is a senior marketing major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
Women in Congress
The Philadelphia Enquirer
MCT Campus
An Alabama grandmother, Lilly M. Ledbetter, got to dance with President Obama last week at the inauguration. This week, she headed back to Washington to witness the new president sign his first major piece of legislation–a workplace-rights measure that became a reality due to Ledbetter’s own crusading efforts.
Not bad for someone who toiled for years in the auto tire industry.
But Lilly Ledbetter, 70, turned her personal experience of being paid less than her male Goodyear counterparts into a national reform that should assure more fairness on the job for all Americans. She sued Goodyear over being underpaid. She lost in the U.S. Supreme Court, but the case prompted congressional action to restore a key workers right.
On Tuesday, Congress approved the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The legislation signed Thursday will make it possible for more employees to challenge unlawful pay discrimination based upon gender, race, age and disability.
Congress acted to repair damage done by an egregious error on the part of the conservative majority on the high court in 2007. The court ruled 5-to-4 that, while Ledbetter had been the victim of pay discrimination, she’d failed to make her allegations within 180 days of the first act of discrimination.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, pointed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act for that bit of legal gymnastics. But a lower court had the right perspective when, earlier, it ordered that Ledbetter be paid more than $3 million in back pay and damages.
The trouble with requiring a strict timetable for reporting pay discrimination is that it often takes employees years to detect wage disparities. Letting businesses duck responsibility for unlawful discrimination as long as they’re able to hide it makes absolutely no sense.
Now, Congress has clarified the law by relaxing the statute of limitations when pay discrimination can be proved. The reform had to await the election of Obama, since former President George W. Bush had vowed to veto it.
