Post by Southern Cross University

There's a beautiful story behind this handshake. Four weeks into a New Colombo Plan placement at the Solomon Islands National Institute of Sport, issues with access to the facility meant Southern Cross University Exercise Science and Clinical Exercise Physiology students had to redesign the placement in real time. Student Jeremy Salter said the disruption accelerated his learning. "Getting thrown in the deep end… I think that accelerated my capacity," he said. "Coming back now, things just come a lot more naturally." Dr Jena Buchan, Academic and Work Integrated Learning Coordinator for Exercise and Sport Science, who led the placement with Dr Jodie Cochrane Wilkie, supported by Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the exchange ran in both directions. Students brought knowledge and energy, and the placement built adaptability and communication skills developed through direct, unscripted experience. That experience is already becoming something larger. A hospital presentation on exercise and health during the final weeks prompted a doctor to ask how exercise physiologists could be brought to the Solomon Islands, a conversation now in the early stages of a research collaboration on exercise oncology and cancer care.