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by PAM
And the 24-day adventure in the land down under begins! Thanks to Australia Awards (AA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the government of Australia, and to the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) Curtin University in Bentley and in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
A colleague and I received a Fellowship from AA to visit WASM Curtin University in the land down under. The goal of the visit is to learn through experiencing how WASM operates in order to revitalize the mining education in the Philippines, specifically addressing gender imbalance under the girls and women empowerment program of Australia. My University and the Curtin University signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year, and forging a partnership between our Faculty of Engineering and that of Curtin's Faculty of Science and Engineering is one of the priorities. Specifically, we are working on jointly offering a Graduate Program in Chemical Engineering with specialization in Metallurgical Engineering as a concrete step in revitalizing mining education in the country.
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| Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Arriving on the 20th of August to visit Western Australia - for the first time. |
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| Exploring the Curtin University Bentley campus. Oy, oy, oy! |
It's my first time to travel to Western Australia. So far, so good. Perth is not as I expected... it's so much better! In fact, I'm loving it! I'm excited to go through the whole duration of the visit. I cannot wait to visit Kalgoorlie - the "Gold Capital of Australia". I wish to visit gold mines, and experience the historical places of Kalgoorlie.
I'm not sure exactly what to expect, therefore I am keeping an open mind and keeping my travel options open. Nevertheless, I secretly hope to run into a "gold mine"... and soak it up a bit. And by "gold mine", I don't just mean a place where you find a block of that glittering yellow-brown metal... I hope to find "gold mine of people", ya know, new colleagues, new friends... and a "gold mine of new experiences". Can't wait!
Your move, Oz. Surprise me! Oy, oy, oy!
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Photo credit: Both photos were taken by Numz De Guzman - thanks.
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