I have so many favorite travel memories, it is so hard to pick just one!
In this world of budget airlines, my mind often drifts back to the days of "slow" travel and to a night spent on the top bunk of a cuccette headed north to Venice in the chiaroscuro of the night. My omnipresent "Walkman" played beautiful compositions by Richard Trythall, accomplished pianist and composer, as the landscape changed from cityscapes to plains to mountains and back again.
When I came to Arcadia, I had about 15 years of professional background and several years of formal study in Italy; my daughter had come up through the Italian school system and while we communicated to each other in English, our life was very much in Italian and with Italians.
Arcadia gave me the opportunity to re-connect with the US, and to do so through American young people who shared their points of view, their experiences, their optimism (or pessimism) with us. My daughter was exposed to more English, and we gained a community of young people and like-minded colleagues from around the world.
I can't say I've ever fathomed a more friendly and constructive workplace. To deliver a worthy understanding of Italy in just a semester means to capture the more essential parts of its culture (and regional cultures) and weave these into the curriculum in a cohesive way. This, I find, we do very well.
We consider ourselves very fortunate to be showered with thank you notes, cards and messages from students even years after they've left Italy; in each they detail just how much they learned about themselves and their abilities and potential while overseas.
Many have chosen career paths based on what they've learned and experienced with us during their time here; some have chosen to move back to Italy and work here. One, in particular, comes to mind. He has been asked back twice from his place of business when he interned here at the UN and is now interning for the UN in New York.
Another student just wrote to us last week about her career path and choice to study law, also thanks to the work she did with us in Rome and Calabria with the Anti-mafia organization, Libera! and our course on The Economics of Organized Crime and Social Innovation.
She states, "Traveling and studying abroad last summer was so important to me and taught me a lot about myself. I learned that I am so capable of so many things due to what I have learned both in and out of the classroom in Rome. I am more comfortable in foreign environments now. The entire Arcadia family is largely part of this because of the support and guidance you provided me....Thank you for making me feel so comfortable with traveling and putting myself in new environments. I definitely feel more confident with my ability to do this job because of the flexibility and adaptability you have helped me develop."
What most resonates with us, are the many, many students who come to appreciate differences among people and cultures as strengths; those who discover themselves citizens of the world and choose to live their lives in a constant curiosity about those around them.
Well, if I didn't know Italy, I'd choose Italy because Arcadia takes such a multilayered approach to exposing the country and culture, delving deep into the territory. But I can hardly choose my own programs, so I'd choose New Zealand.
NZ is as far from the Mediterranean as one can get and my colleague, Director Jane Gunn-Lewis, makes everyday an adventure! I'd love to explore the mountains and coasts. The isolation and small-town friendliness would remind me of Vermont.
Everything makes my program and my team unique. As a bit of an organizational psychologist (absolutely self-taught by intuition and experience), our biggest strength is the team we've built. There is utter collaboration and dedication among us, each contributing 200% to the student experience.
We believe in our mission to bring to each student the most impactful experience we can do and that makes our dedication indefatigable.
Our biggest success factor, is undoubtedly driven by our multi-faceted and multi-layered approach. We are dedicated to our local context and seek to involve students in every aspect from tutoring and community service to familiarizing themselves with the local street art scene or UN Food Security Agencies.
We involve a rich experiential learning component to all of our learning initiatives, creating off-the-beaten track curricular excursions for each course; providing a Cornerstone course which combines content and language to deepen the student's knowledge of the adopted context and not least of all the internship program where students give back to the community in a variety of work placements.
Interns at Arcadia are placed in a multitude of spots. We try to accommodate an incoming students' desires and strengths with the impact we think we can and should have on our community.
By working with a host of international organizations, or Italian companies catering to international audiences, most spots can easily be filled by students with little or no knowledge of Italian. Some focus on, among other things, computer science, communications, writing, sociology and psychology, community and refugee service, gender and diplomacy.
We are determined to create sustainable projects for our partners on the ground and for our incoming students, so that both benefit from this valuable collaboration.