<p>That is a good point about internships. The semester schedule in Australia is quite different from the typical US one, because our summer is their winter, and vice versa. So, the spring semester would run into late June, which would certainly cut down on the opportunity to have an internship that summer. If she went to Australia in the fall semester instead, it would cut down on the summer before junior year. </p>
<p>The good news on the internship front is that she does have an unpaid, part-time (15 hrs/wk) marketing internship lined up for this summer (pre-sophomore), so at least she’ll have one internship on her resume. </p>
<p>It is possible to do Australia in the fall and Italy in the spring, but she thought it better to do them in the other order, in part because she probably wouldn’t speak Italian at all while in Australia. </p>
<p>I don’t know how possible it is to do an internship in Australia during the study abroad program, but I don’t think it is very practical to do while classes are in session, since she will want free time to travel, etc. </p>
<p>I meant, after her term is over, could she do a summer internship for an American company… just, it’s located in Australia? This way, the name of the company would make sense for her resume, but she could plan for it in January with the help of the faculty or person in charge there?
WHV is basically free time to travel, work, study, do whatever you want, for a whole year.</p>
<p>RE: Phone calls: Check into MagicJack. You get a local US phone number (you pick the area code) and you hook it up to your PC and for people in the US it is just like making a regular phone call. It costs like $40 for the device and a years service. I used it while we lived in Germany.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the labor laws in Australia, but an American company in Australia has to follow the local regulations regarding visas, work permits, etc. Just as an Australian company operating in the US follows our laws re: Green cards, etc. Students need to be careful about not abusing a student or tourist visa while they are abroad.</p>
<p>I know of people who have been able to tack on working in a country to a educational stay, but be aware that you may need different sorts of visas for longer stays, whether or not they are officially working.</p>
<p>Knowing my D, an internship in Australia that would extend her stay is not something to be seriously considered at this point. She is already concerned about being away for too long. And more importantly, she just isn’t adventurous enough to deal with all of the issues on her own, especially finding a place to live and living on her own. </p>
<p>Even though she is excited about studying abroad, she also finds it scary. She said that it is less scary knowing that everything will be arranged for her through the program, and that she will live with other Dickinson students. </p>
<p>I’m not ruling an Australian internship out, but it doesn’t really seem relevant to consider as a factor in her decision about whether to study abroad in these two different countries or not. </p>