Category | Arts & Living

Summertime preparations

Published on July 22, 2008 by The Sentinel

    Buon giorno to all students taking summer classes! For those of you
that are reading this column for the first time, let me give you a
little recap of what has been going on. My name is Audra and I became a
Study Abroad student when I applied for the program to Montepulciano,
Italy and was accepted in the fall of 2007.

    At first, I was having a difficult time getting involved with Study Abroad. I had never been to a recruitment fair nor did I have any prior knowledge about studying abroad, yet I knew that it was something that I wanted to participate in.

    Before I met Professor Howard Shealy, one of the directors of the program, it seemed that I kept hitting dead-ends in trying to find out more about Study Abroad. Becoming a part of a Study Abroad program is not something to take lightly, and if a student is considering it they should be well informed about it.

    Professor Shealy was very gracious in taking the time to explain to me all the aspects of the program to Italy.

    He explained the history of the program that Kennesaw State offers, the costs, as well as showing me a DVD compilation of previous Study Abroad students speaking about their experiences. In the end, the Fall 2008 Semester Abroad to Italy was the perfect program for me.

    I started this column in January to give students that do not know much about Study Abroad a little more information by writing about my experiences.

    All year I have been preparing for this trip by either taking prerequisite courses for some of the program courses, studying the Italian language, or simply learning more about Italy.

    Since the beginning of the summer I have been preparing myself in new ways for this journey. Let me start by going back to the end of April when I attended the orientation for the program.

    The orientation began with a slideshow of pictures taken on past Study Abroad trips to Italy. After the slideshow, Professor Joe Remillard and Professor Howard Shealy, the directors of the program, handed out a packet of information on our “Travel Information”. This packet included a Travel Itinerary, Passport information, information on airport regulations on luggage and much more.

    The professors spent time going over everything in the packet and then proceeded to answer questions of the students and parents. Then, we were split up between the art students and history students, and were taken by our respective professors for class information.

    Since I am taking history courses in the fall, I went with the history students. Professor Shealy gave us the syllabi for two of our fall history courses. He then thoroughly went over and explained the work that each course entails, and the exciting trips that will be linked to them. The orientation finished with Professor Shealy answering any other questions we had.

    As an attempt to get to know each other better, a few of the Study Abroad students got together to create a big packing list for what to bring to Italy. Since then we have also gotten together to exercise, because the town of Montepulciano has many steep hills that we will be constantly walking.

    Another way that I have begun to prepare for the fall is by buying two of my course textbooks. It is good to get a head start studying for Study Abroad courses when you are still at home, because it will allow for more time to absorb the culture when you arrive in your destination city.

    I hope that some of this is helpful advice for any other Study Abroad students. These are good ways to prepare for your trip abroad. I will write soon, so ciao for now!