Pictured above are travel abroad students in Italy.
During the months of June and July, 62 CSULB students were able to travel to Italy to attend the first Summer Program in Portovenere, a beautiful resort town on the Italian Riviera, next to the famous Cinque Terre. Organized by the Center for International Education and the Graziadio Center for Italian Studies at CSULB, in cooperation with the Center for Cultural Studies and Research of La Spezia, the program offered three capstone courses: RGR 314I (Introduction to Contemporary Europe) taught by Prof. Carlo Chiarenza, THEA 425I (European Cinema and Theatre) taught by Prof. Maria Viera, and CWL 320I (Comic Spirit) taught by Prof. Teri Yamada. In addition to these courses, many students were also able to take first and second year language courses taught by instructors from the University of Pisa.
One of the reasons Portovenere was selected for the Summer Program’s location was indeed the many benefits that the students would receive. Being unaccustomed to this kind of exchange, many local institutions received the idea with enthusiasm. As a result, every student and faculty received a free transportation card for the area, free access to art shows, wine tasting visits, and local festivals. Local restaurants had a convention that allowed students to pay 50% of the prices listed on the menu, and the Bank of La Spezia awarded every single student a scholarship of 200 euro ($300).
The academic aspect of the program proved to be a great success: studying Europe while being there was certainly much more interesting for students than just reading about it in books. Furthermore, the students arrived in Italy in time for a momentous historical and political event. The day of the students and faculty’s arrival, Ireland had just voted down the referendum to accept the Treaty of Lisbon, a document that had been approved by most of the European governments. The treaty had the purpose of laying down the political and ideological basis for a new European constitution and was supposed to be approved by all the states in the union. Ireland’s rejection sent waves of panic around the governments of Europe. It just happened that a group of students had planned, as the first of their weekend trips, a visit to Dublin. Since the focus of one course was on the dichotomy between local nationalisms and European identity, it was requested by the faculty that the students make the most of their trip and come back with some answers to the question of why Ireland, which was one of the states most advantaged by joining the Union, had decided to reject the Treaty. The students interviewed Irish students, restaurant owners, taxi drivers, and came back the next Monday with a multitude of answers. This generated a very lively class discussion and made the students feel they were part of an event, not just interested bystanders.
On the whole, the Italian study abroad program was a great success. Of course, there were a few minor issues such as the internet connection took quite a few unscheduled siestas, the fridge was too small for so many students and the dollar was too weak for the many temptations winking at students from the store windows of Florence and Rome. However, the Mayor of Portovenere told us that all this would be taken care of by next summer, when the faculty and students will (of course) return for another summer study abroad program.
Left is Sunset in Italy and right is Professor Carlo Chiarenza & Students.
