Harvey Scholar Travels - Juliana and Erin in Rome
Neither of us pictured ourselves in Rome after finishing freshman year. We both had plans to use our travel abroad grants, but we didn’t know when we were going to use them since we were considering full semesters later in our collegiate career. However, through First Year Honors, all of a sudden we were presented with the opportunity to travel to Rome and study with a Mines professor while getting credit for a technical course that both of us would later need. As it turns out, getting ahead in credits would be one of the least important things we gained. Out of the almost 6 weeks we spent in Rome, we saw more of Italy than either of us had seen before, we ate more pizza than we ever thought we could, and we made friends of a lifetime.
Coming from a small school like Mines, it can be easy to start thinking that our college experience is the college experience. But, once we were in Rome, it was impossible not to realize just how different all of our lives were in America. Most of our roommates were from huge schools like Michigan State and Rutgers, while us and one other friend were from Mines and Ramapo. And yet, in Rome, we were given the chance to have one complete shared experience that would never change even after coming back to the US. We’ll always remember our Dar Poeta (pizza) nights, our Amalfi Coast mini-vacation, and the endless inside jokes. It’s hard to forget those things when you still talk every day.
It was definitely a shock though, once we got into classes, how much different our schedules were from our roommates. We both took technical courses and then a course in one of our passions.
I took a drawing course that gave me the opportunity to walk all over Rome and draw major sites. The sketchbook I ended with has both assignments and memories, and it really helped make the trip for me since my two passions are STEM and art. Having the chance to pursue those passions overseas made me feel really lucky.
~Erin
I took World Politics with a professor that teaches at John Cabot University year-round and learned more about the international political arena than I thought possible in just 5 weeks. One of my passions outside of STEM is policy and how countries interact with each other, so being able to learn from someone truly knowledgeable in the field while also being in Italy was really cool!
~Juliana
The academic experience was amazing and incredibly fruitful, but it was hard living with roommates who weren’t also taking as many courses. While they had the chance to go to the beach in the afternoons after they finished their classes and got to skip class for day trips to Tuscany, we had to make sure we were attending our classes due to both attendance components within our final grades as well as the fact that if we didn’t go we knew we wouldn’t be able to perform on our regular quizzes and challenging homework assignments. We would come back from class at 4 pm and work on homework until 10 pm, ending most nights with pizza from Dar Poeta.
The part of the trip that really made it so incredible was the final week we spent just traveling around Italy. In that week we visited Lucca, Pisa, Venice, Verona, Florence, and all five villages in Cinque Terre. From biking around the wall surrounding Lucca to an amazing gondola ride through Venice and the beautiful (if not hectic) experience that was visiting Cinque Terre, our time in Italy wouldn’t have been the same without all of these experiences and memories.
It also brought the two of us much closer as friends to the point where, when I had to go back to Nevada after the trip, we weren’t sure how we were going to process being apart for so long. The memories we made in Rome are memories we will have forever, and we’re glad we had the chance to make them together. Overall, deciding to accelerate our study abroad plans to the summer before sophomore year completely changed so much. We grew as individuals, we grew as friends, and we got ahead academically. Even though it’s not what we expected, it was the best decision we could have made.
Coming from a small school like Mines, it can be easy to start thinking that our college experience is the college experience. But, once we were in Rome, it was impossible not to realize just how different all of our lives were in America. Most of our roommates were from huge schools like Michigan State and Rutgers, while us and one other friend were from Mines and Ramapo. And yet, in Rome, we were given the chance to have one complete shared experience that would never change even after coming back to the US. We’ll always remember our Dar Poeta (pizza) nights, our Amalfi Coast mini-vacation, and the endless inside jokes. It’s hard to forget those things when you still talk every day.
It was definitely a shock though, once we got into classes, how much different our schedules were from our roommates. We both took technical courses and then a course in one of our passions.
I took a drawing course that gave me the opportunity to walk all over Rome and draw major sites. The sketchbook I ended with has both assignments and memories, and it really helped make the trip for me since my two passions are STEM and art. Having the chance to pursue those passions overseas made me feel really lucky.
~Erin
I took World Politics with a professor that teaches at John Cabot University year-round and learned more about the international political arena than I thought possible in just 5 weeks. One of my passions outside of STEM is policy and how countries interact with each other, so being able to learn from someone truly knowledgeable in the field while also being in Italy was really cool!
~Juliana
The academic experience was amazing and incredibly fruitful, but it was hard living with roommates who weren’t also taking as many courses. While they had the chance to go to the beach in the afternoons after they finished their classes and got to skip class for day trips to Tuscany, we had to make sure we were attending our classes due to both attendance components within our final grades as well as the fact that if we didn’t go we knew we wouldn’t be able to perform on our regular quizzes and challenging homework assignments. We would come back from class at 4 pm and work on homework until 10 pm, ending most nights with pizza from Dar Poeta.
The part of the trip that really made it so incredible was the final week we spent just traveling around Italy. In that week we visited Lucca, Pisa, Venice, Verona, Florence, and all five villages in Cinque Terre. From biking around the wall surrounding Lucca to an amazing gondola ride through Venice and the beautiful (if not hectic) experience that was visiting Cinque Terre, our time in Italy wouldn’t have been the same without all of these experiences and memories.
It also brought the two of us much closer as friends to the point where, when I had to go back to Nevada after the trip, we weren’t sure how we were going to process being apart for so long. The memories we made in Rome are memories we will have forever, and we’re glad we had the chance to make them together. Overall, deciding to accelerate our study abroad plans to the summer before sophomore year completely changed so much. We grew as individuals, we grew as friends, and we got ahead academically. Even though it’s not what we expected, it was the best decision we could have made.
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