"I memorized the paths to certain restaurants and gelato shops I liked, and the workers even began to recognize my suitemates and me.
Studying abroad in Italy offered me the opportunity to live in one of the most unique cities in the world: Venice. Venice is a city like no other due to its rich history and the fact the rest of the world’s cars are boats on this tiny island. Personally, my favorite mode of transportation was always walking.
I would wander around the city, listen to music, look for new gelato shops, and observe the civilians whenever I need some alone time or a break from school work. Although I frequently walked around the city, I still did not even make a dent into the sheer amount of restaurants, gelato shops, boutiques, and churches to be explored. I lived like I was a true resident of Venice due to the special independence of the program. I memorized the paths to certain restaurants and gelato shops I liked, and the workers even began to recognize my suitemates and me. In other cases when I needed a break from school work, I would sit and talk with my suitemates for hours about our experiences. The people I shared this overall experience with were special because I may have never met them since several were from Barnard, Columbia School of General Studies, Yale, and Harvard.
Most importantly, this program significantly enhanced my personal and academic growth. I enrolled in Mediterranean Humanities II and Art in Venice, which were two classes outside of my major: Twentieth Century United States History. With that being said, both classes still had a historical spin but in different ways. Now, not only do I have more knowledge on numerous topics, but I have also acquired better study skills as a result of the intensity of these courses that will further help me excel in my core and major courses in the future. These classes were a breath of fresh air, and while I could have taken these Mediterranean Humanities and Art in Venice in New York City, I ultimately wanted to study abroad in order to fully immerse myself in the content in person. We traveled to the cities mentioned in Mediterranean Humanities and saw the art and architecture scrutinized in Art in Venice in person, so my classes mainly consisted of on-site field trips, which provided for an extremely valuable experience.
Having said this, I would never have been able to study abroad in Venice if it had not been for the Global Learning Scholarship. With the scholarship, I was granted the opportunity to take extra summer courses that have ultimately allowed me to acquire a well-rounded education and study methods that will assist me in completing my history major and even on into Law School, which is where I intend to move on after graduation. Furthermore, with the scholarship, I was able to travel and immerse myself in a diversity of cultures, which has turned me into a more culturally competent individual, especially with a newfound appreciation and respect for Italian and other European cultures. Once again, this scholarship gave me the opportunity for a hands-on, on-site experience in the unique city of Venice that is irreplicable anywhere else. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to study abroad and the scholarship that truly made my trip happen, and I will always keep my Venetian experiences cherished in my memories forever.
