09
Mar 10
How Did You Celebrate International Women’s Day?
The 1932 Soviet poster dedicated to the 8th of March holiday. The text reads: "8th of March is the day of rebellion of the working women against kitchen slavery" and "Down with the oppression and narrow-mindedness of household work!".
International Women’s Day was first celebrated during labor movements in the early 1900s, ironically before most women could vote. Slowly, suffrage gained steps forward. In the United States, women received the right to vote in the early 1920s, around the same time as Albania and Burma. In 1929, Canada determined that women were “persons” for electoral purposes. In 1971, surprisingly recently, women got the right to vote in all elections in Switzerland, where previously the right to vote was determined by provincial law. Kuwait was even later in 2005.
Yesterday, International Women´s Day was celebrated in different ways all over the world. The Womens League of Burma continued to fight violence against women and crimes against humanity. The Global Partnership to End Violence against Women gave Melinda Gates a Woman of Courage Award. Women everywhere from Iran to Australia showed their support with ralleys and demonstrations. Although the exact origins of the days seem to be claimed by various countries, we all can now celebrate this day together.
Interested in learning more about the history of this day? Check out some of these related programs:
Modern British Women’s History Program – London Metropolitan University – UK
Master of Arts in Women’s Studies – Flinders University - Australia
Women’s Studies and Gender Relations Diploma – College of New Caledonia – Canada
P.S. In case you did not know, there is also an International Men’s Day (IMD) on November 19th.
08
Mar 10
Course of the Week – Shoe Design Course
One can tell a lot about a person by looking at their shoes. Confidence, personal style, occupation, and economic status can be interpreted by the color, cost and type of shoes. They are a way to express yourself to the world around you. But what if you could express exactly what you wanted to through your shoes? Create your own pair that represent you? Espacio Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina is a first class fashion and design school that offeres a Shoe Design Course. It teaches you to design and create your own shoes, from classic pumps to sandles with and without heels, and from little strappy numbers to ballet flats. The objective of the course is to introduce students to the process of making shoes, combining originality with practicality – learning step by step. One of our team members is currently taking this course, and even considers it her dream job.
Not planning on being in Buenos Aires any time soon? The school also offers all of its courses online!
05
Mar 10
Fulbright – The Best Way to Study Abroad
Students from the U.S.:
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for U.S. graduating college seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to study abroad for one academic year. During the 2008-2009 academic year, more than 1,500 U.S. students were studying abroad with either full or partial support from the Fulbright Program.
Full Grant Award Benefits
Full Grant benefits for Study/Research and English Teaching Assistantships include:
- Round-trip transportation to the host country
- Maintenance for the academic year, based on living costs in the host country
- Limited health benefits
In addition, Full Grants may include:
- Book and research allowances
- Mid-term enrichment activities
- Full or partial tuition
- Language study programs
- Pre-departure and in-country orientation
For foreign students:
The Fulbright Foreign Student Program enables graduate students, young professionals and artists from abroad to research and study in the United States for one year or longer. About 1,700 new awards are awarded to foreign graduate students for support at U.S. universities, and some 1,350 renewal awards are also made each year.
Full Grant Award Benefits
- Round-trip transportation to the United States
- Monthly stipend
- Limited Health Benefits
- Univeristy tuition and costs (total or parcial, depending on the university)
04
Mar 10
The Graduate School Interview
A member of our Educaedu team recently had a round of interviews for graduate school in the U.S. and we decided to share the experience with our readers as well as give some advice for graduate school admissions.
So here it is: an interview about an interview.
Q: How do you get an interview at a graduate school in the U.S.?
A: The grad school application varies by program but the series of events is virtually the same. First you must put together all your application documents, like an official transcript, letters of recommendation, and essays. Then send in your completed application as early as possible as many programs have “rolling admissions”, which means that they fill seats in the class as they find acceptable students. Then you wait. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t hear anything right away as the application review process can take time.
After your application is reviewed you will either get a rejection letter or a request for an interview. If you get rejected you should contact the program for advice on improving your application so that you can apply the following year. If you got an interview, congratulations!
Q: There are a lot of websites with tips about grad school interviews. What are your personal suggestions?
A: Dress to impress. That means a collared shirt and a suit. A tie if you are a guy. Close-toed shoes and a kept appearance. Easy on the make-up and perfumes.
Be yourself. But be your best self. Introduce yourself with a firm handshake and eye contact. Always appear engaged and thank your interviewer when you are finished.
Rehearse but don’t sound scripted. You should prepare with a friend answering some practice questions but be sure to not sound like a robot. Part of the reason they request the interview is to see if you are personable, likeable, HUMAN.
Bring some breath mints and chap stick. Often the programs have breakfast items and coffee and they force you to eat and mingle with other students and faculty. Coffee breath and a dry mouth is not the best impression to leave.
Q: What did they ask you in the interview and how long was it?
A: One of my interviews lasted a little over an hour and the other was only 30 mins. Here are some example questions I was asked:
- How did you decide to apply to the ________ program.
- What other schools did you apply to and why?
- What was the hardest subject/course in undergrad and why?
- How do you cope with stress?
- What does honor mean to you?
- What are you most proud of and why?
- What is your ideal job?
- Describe a moment in your life when you were faced with a hardship and explain how you overcame it.
- What are you looking for in a graduate program/school?
Q: Did you mess any of them up?
A: Totally. I was feeling rather buoyant towards the end of the first interview as I thought it was going rather well. I was then asked about my ideal job and I blurted out “I would love to design shoes”, which has nothing to do with the program to which I was applying. Fortunately, they thought it was funny and assumed I was kidding. I wasn´t. I would love to design shoes.
Q: That’s awesome. Do you have any other advice for our reader who may also be getting ready to interview or possibly apply?
A: Yeah, make sure to ask questions. You should always do some research about the school, program, and faculty, and prepare some intelligent questions for the interviewer. Schools like to see that you have done your homework.
You can check out some graduate programs in the United States here. Good luck!
03
Mar 10
5 Do’s and Don’ts for Your Resume
The Do’s
1. Be error free
Misspelled words and grammatical mistakes are the kiss of death in a resume. Two words – Spell Check.
2. Be pretty
Make sure the format of your resume is pleasing to the eye. It needs to be evenly laid-out and have white space in the right places.
3. Tell the truth
Avoid making things up or embellishing any facts. The truth will come back to haunt you sooner or later.
4. Be concise
A resume shouldn’t be a novel. Depending the country and postion, resumes should be no longer than one or maybe two pages. Showing that you can organize and select key information will be a positive reflection on your skills.
5. Have references
You don’t need to include these on your resume unless it is specifically asked for by the employer. It is necessary, however, to have them ready and printed out. You never know when they will be asked from you.
The Don’ts
1. Don’t tell your life story
Don’t confuse your resume with your autobiography. While there are many pieces of information that your resume must have, its primary purpose is to focus on the aspects of your life and career that address the employer’s needs. Your babysitting job from when you were 16 is most likely not necessary.
2. Don’t provide personal data
Marital status, date of birth, height/weight, and similar non-work-related information can be used to illegally discriminate against applicants, and they rarely add anything of value to your qualifications (This depends on the country and culture).
3. Don’t be a broken record
Don’t repeat the same action words throughout the resume. Instead of using the verb developed or organized over and over, pull out your thesaurus and mix in terms like accelerated, delivered, directed, established, initiated, or reengineered.
4. Don’t be cliché
Don’t say you are a people-person or use adjectives like dynamic or self-starting. Let the details of your resume convince the employer that you have these qualities.
5. DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
IT DOESN’T MAKE ANYTHING MORE IMPORTANT AND IT IS KIND OF ANNOYING.
Well, there you have it. Some helpful tips for you resume. Something else that adds legitimacy to your experience? Having an impressive educational background and continuously taking courses to keep competitive in your field.
02
Mar 10
Support for Educaedu in Chile
Educaedu would like to take the opportunity to show its support for Chile after the terrible earthquake that hit on February 27th. We have several offices in South America, including one in Chile, where our commercial representative Jessica is based. Jessica has told us that she and her immediate family are doing fine, but there are still many friends and other people that are unaccounted for at this stage, as communication systems are not functioning normally.
We have translated an email that Jessica recently sent us, describing her experience early last saturday morning:
The earthquake scared us, it surprised us while we were asleep, and it left us in the dark without the means to communicate. Even though my apartment still stands, the destruction has affected us terribly, but I am thankful to still have my home and my life and that I can tell you about it.
The earthquake was graded as 8.8, the one in Haiti was a 7 so you have an idea how severe it was. It was followed by another one at level 6.8 that lasted almost the same time and it was this one that caused the most destruction. In the hour after the tremor, all of the coasts were hit by tsunamis, some that went almost unnoticed, and others that destroyed everything in their path. The aftershocks still continue, some stronger than others, but they never stop to scare us, they bring with them a silence that makes us hold our breath, as we wonder if it will become stronger or stop in any moment.
The darkness, the fear, the uncertainty and the lack of leadership made the hours of the night unforgettably difficult. Groups of looters broke out in the city, and in the towns in the south where the devastation was the worst, the looters caused even more damage. They stole televisions, washing machines, beds, everything, something that I`ve never seen and that I am ashamed to write about. Recently things have gotten a bit better with the deployment of the army in the streets.
Rescue workers on Sunday, February 28. Photo - CNN - AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Jessica has told us that it is not clear how the earthquake impacted many education centres, but she does know that the University of Concepción lost its entire chemistry laboratory, which was one of the most important in Chile. Many centres are also opening their doors and forming groups of volunteers to help with the recovery.
We hope that Chile can recover from a terrible event such as this, and that it can reestablish stability. To all of the universities and educational centres, we hope that they too can recover what they have lost.
01
Mar 10
Course of the Week – Undersea Photography Course
For Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo fans comes a course about capturing the beauty at the bottom of the sea. The Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California provides an Undersea Photography Course that allows students to explore the Santa Barbara Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and photograph what lies beneath the water.
Flickr Creative Commons - TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋)
In this rare course, students can learn how to capture images while immersed in the sea and how to master the difficult task of capturing light as it plays through water. This Underwater Photography Course combines a love of the sea with a passion for photography.
26
Feb 10
Siestas May Improve Learning
Foto - The Hindu
It seems like something out of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, but it turns out taking naps can improve your life in more ways than previously thought. A new study has found that young adults who slept for 90 minutes after lunch increased their learning. Their memories were more able to absorb new facts.
The discoveries were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Diego.
“You need to sleep before learning, to prepare your brain, like a dry sponge, to absorb new information,” said Matthew P. Walker, lead investigator and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley.
The study used 39 young adults and divided them into two groups. All were asked to remember 100 names and faces at noon, and then to remember a different set of names and faces at 6 p.m. The 20 volunteers who slept for 90 minutes between the two learning sessions improved their scores by an average of 10 percent, while the scores of those who didn’t nap actually dropped by 10 percent.
Let’s all hope that colleges and universities will bring back nap time (juice and animal crackers too).
Reference |
25
Feb 10
Educaedu Launches in the United States
Educaedu has officially launched in the United States! As our 19th country, the U.S. is one of the most exciting releases we have had to date.
Users will find a wide variety of programs (short courses, associate degrees, bachelor degrees, certification programs, MBAs and Masters, and even doctorate degrees). Given the growing popularity of online programs, students can also discover almost any program in an online format.
Many students in the U.S. are looking to study abroad and even more students from around the world can now use Educaedu to find their ideal program. We feel this new release is a big step to connecting educational institutions and prospective students on a global scale.
The site is still a work-in-progress as the education possibilites in the U.S. are so vast. As we continue to find more exciting courses and programs the site will grow and develop, so check in with us now and again to see whats new at Educaedu!!
Here are some courses on our brand new United States website… get your learn on:
Undersea Photography Course at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California
Radio DJ Training Course at BMG Broadcasters Mentoring Group in Agoura Hills, California
MBA in Global Leadership – Online at Delaware Valley College in Delaware
Click here to explore all your options in the United States.
24
Feb 10
Back to School in Your 50s
Stephanie in her garden.
All around the world a growing group of adults in their 50s and up are choosing to go back to school. Some are looking for further training, while many are stepping into college and university classrooms for the first time. At the age of 53, Stephanie Scott decided to become a Certified Master Gardener by completing a program at Oregon State University in the United States.
Before the first class she was feeling excited, but also anxious regarding tests, understanding material, and feeling comfortable with the group. She did not know how her age would affect her return to school. Would people treat her differently because she was older? Interestingly enough, Stephanie discovered upon entering class that she was actually one of the youngest students. The majority were women in their 60s.
As far as whether or not school was harder or easier, Stephanie can only say that her desire to learn was stronger. Her biggest challenge was retention of material. She was forced to read texts over and over again to remember for exams.
As a Master Gardener, Stephanie volunteers in the community giving gardening tips to those who are having problems. Now the garden in her backyard is quite large and she frequently has to give her vegetables out for free to neighbors.
Stephanie’s advice to other adults looking to go back to school: Do it!!! You will find it exhilarating and challenging, but you will never regret the decision!!!
The Master Gardeners at the Annual Rose Festival Parade in Portland, Oregon.
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