Study Abroad
Study Abroad
January Intersession Opportunity
January Intersession Opportunity
January 1 - 18, 2025
January 1 - 18, 2025
While in Italy, I took a class on the gastronomy culture of Italy. This involved learning to cook traditional Italian dishes and learning how to properly pair them with a wine. We also learned about the wine-making process and the neurogastronomy that goes with proper food and wine pairings.
Outside of class, my roommates and I would often plan trips to explore more of Italy outside our home-base of Florence. We visited Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Santa Margherita, Melato, Rome, and Venice, all during our two-and-a-half week stay and were able to experience classic landmarks like the Colosseum or Leaning Tower as well as the countryside at different wineries across the Chianti region.
On this trip, I experienced many personal challenges. To start, this trip was the first time I had travelled alone and my first time travelling out of the country. This was a huge test of my independence and adaptability, which was shown during the application and planning process, the commitment to leave on my own, and the adapting to Italian culture and learning to exist and experience in a new country.
As briefly stated already, I think some of the most prominent skills I exhibited during this trip were independence and adaptability. I'd really never done anything like this before, and I surprised even myself with how smoothly this process went with no prior comparable experiences. Between finding plane tickets, taking a class, and planning weekend trips to explore more of the country, I learned that I can very quickly adapt to new situations and be successful, even if I don't realize I'm doing so.
Along with this, I also worked on skills such as communication and diverse thinking, which are a large part of being in a new and different culture. I learned how to work with a language barrier, even though many people still spoke english, and learned to understand Italian culture and be respectful of the people around me.
While this class doesn't directly align with my major and future goals, it did provide important skills that I plan to use in my career. The Complete Engineer Program at UNL has six competencies, three of which are communication, initiative and independence, and inclusive excellence, which are clearly exhibited in my learned skills.
Even though I didn't work towards any engineering specific credits, I did work to become a Complete Engineer, which will help me move forward in my career now and well into the future.