5 Reasons to go on the Made in Italy Study Abroad Program

February 1, 2019 - Ellie Denison

Students, are you looking to embark on the educational journey of a lifetime? Are you passionate about learning and living in a different culture? Do you want a way to complete some of your sales electives in the summer? If you responded "Yes" to any of these questions, then you need to apply for the 2019 "Made in Italy" Study Abroad program!  Experience personal, professional, and academic growth as you:


  1. Earn 9 credits in 6 weeks, May 9 - June 23!

Students will have chance to earn 2 of their 3 SLM electives through this program. The specific classes include:

  • Made In Italy: The Branding of a Phenomenon (3 credits)
  • Communication Italian Style: Popes, Politicians, and Pop Culture (3 credits)
  • Intercultural Communication and Sales (3 credits)

  1. Explore!

In addition to planned excursions in and around Rome and Florence, students travel during their free weekends to places like the Amalfi Coast, Venice, Cinque Terre, Paris, Amsterdam, Croatia, Barcelona, Munich, and many more. When not traveling, students live as locals in neighborhoods in the Trastevere area of the city.  


  1. Obtain real world sales/marketing experience through your classes! Classes in this program do not take place in a traditional classroom. Instead, students have on site “experiences” to learn about communication, marketing, and branding strategies over the past three millennia in locations such as a Medieval castle, a 1st Century church built on top of a pagan temple and school, temples to the Roman gods and goddesses that transitioned to Christian churches. Students learn the history behind the city’s unique architecture, artwork, and fallen leaders who have shaped it to be what it is today. Students also develop and present an international marketing plan for an Italian product that will be marketed to an American audience.

  1. Learn from some of the most dynamic professors in the world!

Made in Italy has access to two faculty members whose reach goes far beyond Rome.  Whenever students come back from this study abroad program and are asked what their favorite part of the program was, they typically answer with "Sean-Patrick Lovett", a 40-year veteran of the Vatican, former Director of Vatican Radio’s English section, and communication expert who travels the world holding seminars and workshops.  Andrea Guiricin, who teaches the marketing class, is a native Italian, lives in Spain, is on faculty of the University of Milan Biccoca, and is adjunct faculty at a transportation university in Beijing China. Guiricin also travels the world consulting on the transportation industry and his specialty is high speed rail. His commentary, expertise, and interviews end up on the pages of  the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and many other publications, in addition to on-air radio and television broadcasts in Italy and its surrounding countries. Jennifer Rumler teaches the Intercultural Communication and Sales class that examines communication between groups of people, specifically with Italians and also the refugee population in Rome with several different organizations, a subset of the 65 million people who are currently displaced worldwide.  Mario Cacciafeste rounds out the faculty, and he teaches the non-credit “Survival Italian” class which assists students with getting around the city, ordering in coffee bars and restaurants, and shopping at local neighborhood markets.


  1. Make a difference in a local Italian community!

During the 2017 & 2018 programs students spent four days at an anti-mafia co-op that takes confiscated mafia land and property and re-purposes it for the benefit of the community, including providing housing for recent refugees arriving in Italy. Students worked with political refugees mostly from African countries, learned about their heartbreaking journeys, and contributed to making their lives just a little bit better.  If you love making a difference in people's lives, you should really apply to this program.


There are still some openings on the program, but it is highly sought after.  Pre-departure meetings begin in January, and the program takes place May 9th to June 23rd.


“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” -Ferris Bueller


What are you waiting for? Apply now!