Upcoming Trips for DMACC Students

DMACC students looking to travel abroad this spring have two options: 12 days in Ireland, or three weeks in Australia and New Zealand.

Janelle Patterson, an instructor of nursing at the Boone campus, is hosting the Australia and New Zealand trip.

She says, “I feel as though international travel helps give us a much better awareness and understanding of other cultures and beliefs and if people were able to travel more I think we would all be more understanding of what we don’t know.”

She hosted a trip last year to Scotland, Ireland, England, Iceland and Denmark and went on previous trips as well. Patterson hosts these trips with Grandview University where she previously worked.

The trip to Australia and New Zealand is a three-week trip. Two of those weeks will be spent in Australia seeing the main cities as well as the Great Barrier Reef and then a week on the south island of New Zealand.

All together, the trip will cost around $4,500. The full payment would be needed by late February or early March.

This amount includes travel and accommodations. The only other thing the student needs to pay for is lunch, dinner, and souvenirs.

This price is cheap compared to the price that it would cost to travel and do everything on the itinerary by yourself which is estimated at $5,000 for just flights and hotel stays, not including guided tours and other items on the itinerary.

Patterson says, “You will never have enough money to travel, so at least as a student you already have loans probably and you have time more so than when you have a full-time job and have to worry about vacation time.”

The tentative schedule for the Australia and New Zealand trip includes traveling to Melbourne, Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, Christchurch, Southern Alps, Queenstown and Milford Sound.

It includes guided tours as well as has free time in the evenings to do as you please.

Students do not need to take any classes for this trip, it is educational but is more about enjoying oneself on vacation than school work.

According to Patterson, “Your responsibilities and expenses will only increase after you graduate, with buying a house and stuff like that so if you have a chance to travel in your life travel and the things you will learn just about life is what’s so great about it.”

If interested in the trip to Australia and New Zealand contact Janelle Patterson at japatterson3@dmacc.edu or 515-433-5073