Capstone: Honors Study Abroad Italy
In the Summer of 2024, I had the opportunity to participate in the Honors College Grand Tour of Italy study abroad program. I was a student participating in the program while also doing an internship for the Honors College Study Abroad office as a content creator during the period of my program. I spent the whole month of May touring italy with another 17 Honors College students and our two amazing Italian professors. We visited over 10 different Italian cities (Roma, Vatican City, Narnia, Naples, Pompeii, Florence, Pienza, Pisa, Genova, Milan, Cinq Terre, and the Burano and Murano Islands).
Talking about this experience really makes me emotional. This was easily one of the most significant experiences of my life and by far my best experience throughout all my years at FIU. During this trip I fell in love with a culture that I did not know, a group of people I have no connection with, and my life was forever changed. I am forever grateful for this opportunity. We visited so many historical sites, from the Uffizi Museum to Pompeii. I had the chance to see Da Vinci's work in person, try so many traditional Italian dishes, interact with locals, see a medieval tournament in Narnia, and try fresh Italian wine in the Tuscany region, there was so much that we did and learned!
In the Spring Semester of 2024 we started to have classes together in which we studied the history and culture of the cities we were going to visit. During that period, I learned so much, but once we got there and got the chance to see everything we talked about in class, it was really magical and unforgettable. It was totally different also to visit a place knowing so much background about it, it definitely made everything much more impactful. It was the first time I got introduced to European geopolitics as well, which was really significant and made me join the Model European Union team this semester and take more classes about the EU. I also got the chance to know the amazing people in my group who are now really close friends.
To conclude, I got so many different skills from this experience that I am going to carry with me for a lifetime, on the personal as well as professional level. These come from not only the experience of traveling and studying abroad, but by completing my internship work while I was there too, and doing everything as a big group. First, I believe my communication skills improved significantly, I was able to learn a little bit of the Italian language which can be very beneficial in my field. Additionally, it increased my global awareness and gave me a different global perspective. A few other skills I believe I improved throughout this experience include teamwork and collaboration, adaptability and problem-solving, time management, taking initiative and leadership, and conflict resolution.