News > September 27, 2007

By Liza Greenspun | News editor

In an attempt to give Italian students a full-immersion program and following the lead of other university-sponsored study abroad initiatives, Erice, Sicily, will host the university’s newest overseas summer program beginning in summer 2008.

click to enlarge

Venus Castle sits on a cliffside in Erice, Sicily, the site of the university’s newest summer study abroad program. (KDE-Look.org)

Antonio Vitti, professor of romance languages and administrator of the Sicily program, has spent the past year-and-a-half traveling to Sicily and speaking with the university administration in order to prepare the new program. It will run from May 12 to June 17, 2008.

The program will be held in the small community of Erice, where according to Vitti, people do not speak English and where many cultures have met in the past, leading to a rich heritage with influences from many parts of the world.

Students will stay in a former convent in the old town of Erice that has been restructured and renovated into a hotel.

Within the hotel are classrooms where university professors will teach Italian and various humanities classes.

The old town of Erice is a very small, close-knit community situated 800 meters above sea level on a mountain, while the new town of Erice is located at the bottom of the mountain, very near the coastal city Trapani.

Students will be required to take three classes while in Erice, at least one of which must be an Italian language class.

Native speakers will also be available for conversation aspects of the program. Vitti said that it is preferred that students have at least one semester of Italian before the start of the program.

Ultimately, Vitti said he hopes a Mediterranean studies program will result from the adoption of the Sicily program.

“I always thought of Sicily as being a microcosm of the world,” Vitti said, “kind of a melting pot before the United States.”

Further west on the European continent, another new summer program began in Salamanca, Spain in summer 2007.

While the university’s Salamanca semester study-abroad program has been in place for more than 30 years, this was the first time a summer program specific to an overseas internship was offered.

The internship program, different from the usual academic study abroad experience, started when students began requesting internship opportunities abroad, said Candelas Gala, professor of romance languages and director of the program.

Gala said that students often opted for an internship program in Madrid, so she decided that a similar Salamanca program would be a better experience, as it is a much smaller city where students would be a better experience, as it is a much smaller city where students would be less likely to feel lost and could receive more individual attention.

Many internship possibilities are pre-approved, including internships with the American Red Cross, at a local medical clinic, at a local elementary school and many other opportunities.

Gala said that they are willing to help students find internships that interest them, even if they are not already on the previously-approved list.

For example, Gala said that one student wanted to work in a physics lab, and another wanted to work at an immigration agency.

They were able to accommodate both of these requests.

Four students participated during the program’s first year. Sophomore Emma Causey said she originally planned to go to Madrid for an internship, but that Gala convinced her to apply for the Salamanca program instead.

Causey said she was worried that her language skills would not be sufficient enough and did not want to feel lost in a city as large as Madrid.

The program consists of two possible five-week sessions, corresponding with the university’s summer school sessions, Gala said.

The internship itself is worth three credit hours at the university, and if a student chooses to also partake in the class, he or she will receive an additional three hours.

Students stay with Spanish families in Salamanca.

For the internship itself, students must be on site for a certain number of hours each morning, Gala said.

In the afternoon, they have the option of enrolling in a class having to do with their internships, which will count towards the Spanish major, or of returning to their internship for several more hours.

“I’m ecstatic,” Gala said of the success of the program’s first summer. “What I have found is that (students) really felt accomplished.”

Causey, who worked as a translator in a health clinic said that although she was nervous about her level of Spanish at first, she does feel that she benefited greatly from the experience.

“Now I feel much more proficient,” she said.