Kangaroos, poisonous snakes and Missouri Southern students all have one thing in common: they can be found in Australia.

The Practical Student Nursing Department and the entire Technological Departments are considering a trip to Australia.

The study trip will take place during intersession after final exams in May.

“We are going to Australia and possibly New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef,” said Sheila Hart, nursing instructor.

“All technological departments and their interested students will be going.”

The trip will be about 12 days long.

The department is currently taking bids from travel agencies.

The information will be turned into the Institute of International Studies by October 18.

“Twenty-three nursing students have expressed interest and the Criminal Justice Department will have a large group going also,” Hart said.

Others are working on the trip as well.

“Pending approval by the international institute competing for a grant,” Richard Spencer, assistant professor of criminal justice administration,” said. “They decide which study trips to fund. The whole school of technology from practical nursing, criminal justice, dental hygiene, computer science, industrial technology and MIMS.”

Spencer is the chairman of a committee set up for the Australian trip.

“We will visit Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and may spend a day or two in the Northern Territory the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

“We hope students and faculty will have an opportunity to visit sites in their own fields, nursing to health clinics and criminal justice to police departments and prisons and hopefully a trial.”

Spencer said there will be benefits for the students socially as well.

“The trip will give faculty and students a chance to strike up a friendship with their peers,” he said.

The ideal numbers would be 20-30 students and two to three faculty, a 10-1 ratio.

Because the trip is in the early planning stages, Hart said not too many students knew about the trip.

Hart said the trip will give the various technology departments an opportunity to learn about how their various fields of study operate in Australia.

Spencer said any interested students may e-mail him at [email protected].