Two years after performing in a student production of a 'A Chorus Line' in Rockhampton, Jenna Saini was overjoyed to be in New York recently to witness a Broadway version of the show.

The CQU Performing Arts student was in the United States on a 6-month student exchange program organised with Buffalo State University (State University of New York).

Jenna struck the right chord with her USA exchange

"Doing the USA exchange program was an absolutely amazing experience and one of the best professional and personal decisions I've ever made," Jenna said.

"I had experiences I never thought I'd have and visited places I never dreamed I'd see. And I saw snow!

"As a Performing Arts student, to be able to travel to America to further my skills was a dream come true.

"I never thought I could do something like this. But I did. I took a risk and it was the best decision I ever made."

"My courses were fantastic. I learnt things about the performing arts that I may not have learnt here... simply because you experience knowledge from different cultural perspectives.

"In one of the highlights of my trip, I was taking Dance, Acting and Music courses and through these I got to perform in a 4-part chorale performance of The Messiah, participate in African American Jazz dance classes that came from the root of African American history, and auditioned for and was cast in the Buffalo State production of Antigone.

"I also got to do dance workshops with professional choreographers and an acting/audition workshop with an independent theatre company. It's little things like this that you learn so much from.

"One of the best experiences I had would have to have been seeing theatre on Broadway in NYC. This is something I've wanted to do since I became interested in performing so to be standing on Broadway was absolutely crazy and so exciting."

Jenna's home town is Lismore (NSW), where she attended Trinity Catholic College. She came to Rockhampton in 2006 specifically because of the broad experience available through the Bachelor of Performing Arts degree, since she is a singer and guitarist who is also thriving in dance and drama classes.

Jenna said the program would not have been possible without the help of a $5000 exchange scholarship from CQU, covering much of her travel and accommodation.

"The help of this scholarship meant that I still had savings left to be financially comfortable while I was overseas, which helps a lot when you're by yourself on the other side of the world! It also meant I got to explore America and do some sight-seeing, which I think is a massive part of the cultural experience.

"Being involved in something like this really makes you grow up fast. I lived with 7 other exchange students, sharing a room with one of them and I had no clue who these people were. It's a situation that really makes you an individual.

"It hits you when you first arrive that you are all that's familiar to yourself in the northern hemisphere and it's quite daunting. But the staff are wonderful and you literally make friends in seconds so you have support with getting to know a foreign city. And once you get used to the public transport system and traveling around, organising accommodation and finding your own food etc, it makes you become very independent.

"Being Australian, everyone wants to get to know you. Americans are fascinated with the Aussie accent so it's very easy to make friends and interact with people.

"There are a few language barriers... it took me 10 minutes to order a sandwich because they didn't know what capsicum was (they call them Bell Peppers) and a lot of the time the response to ‘Thank you' is ‘Uh Huh' which at first I thought was a little rude but in time learnt that this was perfectly normal there. Little things like this for me made the experience all the more interesting.

"While at times it was hard, this experience was fun, challenging and something that I learnt so much from... not only about my profession but about myself too. I've made friends for life, had amazing experiences and saw places I never dreamed I'd get to see."