Student Voices
Let's start with the laughing faces of our students who express their Study Abroad Ìý happiness on the top of the Dolomiti mountains. "The sun is bright, the sky is blue. Study Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½!" (Click on the picture to listen to the chant)
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Orianna Soublette graduated in May 2024 with a double major in Italian and Linguistics. She advises to attend in-person Italian classes to take advantage of all opportunities ´óÏó´«Ã½ Italian offers. Like she did! (Click on the picture)
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Dr. Simone Puleo, now an Assistant Professor of Italian at Central Connecticut State University, speaks about his experience as an Italian major at ´óÏó´«Ã½ and brings us his students' greetings. (Click on the picture)
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Jennifer Giraldo studied Italian and ´óÏó´«Ã½ and participated in the 2011 Study Abroad Program in Italy. Thirteen years later she runs across Prof. Serra in Barnes and Noble, and she looks back at how studying in Venice changed her life. She is now a teacher who travels with her students and loves her job. (Click on the picture to watch)
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Lisa Ramirez graduates with a Minor in Italian a Major in Linguistics. She looks back at her accomplishments at ´óÏó´«Ã½: she is the recipient of the 2024 Myriam Swennen Ruthenberg Italian In-Lingua Writing Award. (Click on the picture to watch)
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Junior Gina Rocco, past-president of Italian Club Insieme, student abroad in Venice, Italian Minor and quasi-Major, teacher of Italian at AD Henderson Elementary School, and future au-pair in Italy, explains why she is happy she studied Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½. (Click on the picture to watch)
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Sophomore Spencer Crisman slides in the beautiful campus of ´óÏó´«Ã½,Ìý happy to have joined Italian 1120 this semester. (Click on the picture to watch)
From the Dolomiti: students thank the donors of Il Circolo-Italian Cultural Society of the Palm Beaches who helped them realize their dream. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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From Burano, Italy: students thank the donors of the UNICO Highland Beach chapter who helped them realize their dream. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Lucia DeSanto Cordrey can't forget her experience at ´óÏó´«Ã½ and its Venice study abroad. She explains how Italian helped her in her job as an accountant. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Landed a wonderful job at the Consulate General of Italy in Miami! Isabella Cipollone Movilla hosts one of the events of the new Italian Cultural Institute in Miami, a fter a successful undergraduate and Master career in Political Sciences and Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Italian major, Richard Leon, speaks about his experience teaching English in Lombardy in 2022-23, after graduating from ´óÏó´«Ã½. He shows some of his favorite pictures so far. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Ashley Alvarez and Eric Margolies on their romance with Italian, from the top of the Dolomiti mountains. "We met in Italian I. We fell in love. We came to the Study Abroad in Venice, and we really fell in love with Italy"... "And we got credit for it"... "The best part!" (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Zachary Scalzo, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Italian graduate (BA and Master's) accompanied the Venice Study Abroad program as an instructor of Italian in Summer 2022. He describes the meaning of the verses by Mario Stefani, tattooed on his arm. Zac holds an MFA and is currently artist in residence at the University of Oklahoma. (Click on picture to watch)
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Ryan Hauslinger, 2020 graduate, Italian major and pastry chef, recalls his best memories at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Italian as a student on the autism spectrum. He speaks from Salem, MA, where he works in a bakery and indulges his passion for the mysterious. We miss his cookies. (Click on picture to watch video)
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Alumna Cat Coule tells about her experience in the Poetry Camp in Castiglione del Terziere, with ´óÏó´«Ã½ Professors Ilaria Serra and Emanuele Pettener, June 2022. She studied Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½ and is now a life coach with an Italian flare. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Valentina Sasso and Gianna Alberti show where they study Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½. Click on the picture to watch the video. Click to watch and videos. These videos were prepared in a class workshop with filmmaker Gianni Del Corral.
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Dawn Dubriel, Italian minor, tells her story with ´óÏó´«Ã½ study abroad in Italy, Florence and Venice, and how it changed her life. She then earned two MA degrees and is now a PhD student with a rewarding full-time job. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Kevin Anderson, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Italian major, tells about is experience in the Italian program, his year teaching in Italy after graduation, and the unexpected path his life took after studying Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½. He has now earned a Master in Linguistics from the University of Seville and is not coming back from there! (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Austin Sanniota Edwards, Master's in Comparative Literature: Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½, speaks to his students at Olympia Highschool in Orlando, where he is a beloved teacher. He clearly cannot forget his study abroad experiences in Venice, as a student and as an assistant. (Click on the picture to watch)
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George Mazzei speaks about his Italian studies at ´óÏó´«Ã½. It is never too late to learn the language of your father. (Click on the picture to watch)
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Vicente Pereira Duque, class of 2021, Italian Major, speaks of how taking Italian at ´óÏó´«Ã½ "has changed his life." He is a substitute teacher and works on cruise ships, and plays heartfelt soccer. (Click on the picture to watch)
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Brittni Rallston ZilbertiÌýon the unexpected path her life has taken after her graduation with an Italian minor at ´óÏó´«Ã½, and after writing a letter to Juliet, in Verona. You can read her stories as an expat in her .Ìý(Click on the picture toÌýwatch the video)
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This video was done to encourage the students of Italian who had just switched to remote learning for the first time and were locked in their homes. In March 2020, we did not know how it would go, how long it would last, when shops and schools and sports would open again. At ´óÏó´«Ã½, we did not want to lose touch with our students and friends and learned to use Zoom for the first time. Friends, alumni and current students give an encouragement for our Italian classes. In Italian. (Click on the picture to watch)
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Nicole Barilla, Italian Minor, and Marjorie Hernandez, Italian Major, speak about their Undergraduate Research study during the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Study Abroad Program in Venice, summer 2019. (Click on the picture to watch video).
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Nicoletta Sorice on her graduation with a BA in Linguistics: Italian, at 81. She recorded this story for "The Public Storyteller," NPR Radio program by Dr. Caren Neil. Here she is congratulated by ´óÏó´«Ã½ president John Kelly. Ìý One thing she said, presenting her memoir "My Journey to America. Memoirs of an Italian American Woman" (2023) to our students: "There areÌý diminishers and illuminators. Diminishers make you feel invisible, unseen. Illuminators are just curious about you, and they make you feel lit up.Ìý I lived a lifetime among diminishers who had no problem reminding me of all that was wrong with me. I met illuminators at ´óÏó´«Ã½. Dr. Ilaria Serra, Dr. Emanuele Pettener, and many other professors whose knowledge inseminated the positive in me, and like a sponge, I absorbed their teachings. Dr. Serra encouraged me to write my life story in my senior year. Dr. Pettener's love for writing inspired and challenged us in his creative writing class." Click to listen s and c lick on the picture above to listen to her story in "The Public Storyteller" (WLRN).
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Magdalena Pire-Schmidt on landing a ten-year job experience at Google in California and Ireland, thanks to her B.A. in Italian.Ìý(Click on the picture to watchÌýthe video)
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Italian major, Richard (Riccardo) Leon speaks about his love for Italian, in Italian. He is now teaching in Lombardy for a full year. (Click on the picture to watch the video)
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Michelle Trujillo tells how IIalian literature inflluenced her filmmaking. Michelle graduated with a double major in Italian and Communications, and is now a film instructor at the University Wisconsin-MilwaukeeÌýwhere she earned anÌýMFA, Film, Video, Animation and New Genres.Ìý
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Amy Volpe onÌýhow her Italian studies at ´óÏó´«Ã½ helped her in her growth. Amy has a career as a teacher in Florida Virtual School and is still an active member of Club Insieme.Ìý(Click on the picture to see the video)
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Nicholas Christodoulidis, participant in the first Study Abroad in Venice, on his experience singing in the choir of Saint Mark’s Basilica. He has perfected an innovative way to scan and reproduce sculptures and is helping to save the Italian artistic heritage.
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ÌýZachary Scalzo on his career as an artist and a scholar – started in the Italian program at ´óÏó´«Ã½. He made a new video above.
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Dr. Alessia Martini on continuing her Italian career from Master’s to professorship. Alessia's article "Scolpito nella pietra: testimonianze scultoree della comunità italiana di Barre, Vermont" prepared for the "Italian America: Trasnlating Identities" graduate class, has been published in (2022).
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Gianni Croci on Studying in Venice. While there he started the research for his Honor's Thesis,ÌýVenetianÌýNational Identity: An Ethno-Symbolic Approach.ÌýUpdate: the thesis has been published by ´óÏó´«Ã½ in concomitance with the 1600 anniversary of the foundation of Venice and is available .
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Jessica Monge on taking Italian graduate classes.
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Camila Rochwerger on her job offers after graduation.
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Flaviane Chaves on her experience in the Italian Program.
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Alberto Gonzalez on his Venice Study Abroad and Italian experience.
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Adam NakashÌýon his favorite Venice experience: visiting writer Alda Monico (1934-2018) in her home.
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Paige Besinger on participating in an excavation camp in Lazzaretta Nuovo Island after her second study abroad in Venice.
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Brian Gomez on taking Italian instead of Spanish, his native language.
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Dominic Santoya onÌýenrolling in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Venice Study Abroad twice.
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Hristo Joseph on why he studies Italian.
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"Reese" Gordon tells his not-too-polished story about howÌýItalian classes and Disney World competed for one student’s destiny. Yes, he did get the job in Disney Land, California. Read this entertaining post by clicking on the picture showing the 113th time Reese rode the Space Mountain.Ìý
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