After almost a month of taking classes in Florence, I wanted to share my academic experiences so far. I am not doing an internship this semester, so I am taking a full course load of 13 credits which is equal to four classes here. We are required to take an Italian language class in this program and it has turned out to be one of my favorite classes so far. My class is all students from Pitt and taught by a Pitt professor which gives it a familiar feel. We learn by practicing in class with little note taking or lectures. We also get to explore places like local bars (Italian cafes) and practice ordering completely in Italian. Besides that, we are allowed to choose any courses from the approved list. I chose to take international economics, international dimensions of organizational behavior, and an English class focused on Dante’s Comedy and Boccaccio’s Decameron; two very famous Italian literary works. These classes fulfill my minor requirements and electives back at Pitt.

In all my classes, I really like how discussion based they are. In all classes we have a graded engagement requirement which includes participating in class discussions and group work. I have found that it makes all the classes a lot more interesting an engaging than just listening to lectures and taking notes. Each of my classes will also spend time out in Florence where we get to understand more of the culture and connect class concepts to real scenarios. For example, my English class has already visited the Dante museum, and we have searched the city for his famous plaques that contain quotes from the Divine Comedy. It has really shown how loved and proud Florence is of his work. In my economics class we will get the chance later in the semester to do a site visit of a growing market and talk to real shop owners and developers. This will be part of our final project, and we will get to create a real plan to expand their market based on what we learn there. Overall the academic culture in Florence is focused on making connections with what we learn in class to the outside world.

Transitioning to a discussion based learning environment has shown me that it is important to be open to hearing new ideas and has forced me to step out of my shell in class to participate. I have noticed a difference in my ability to stay focused when I am actively participating in class discussions. The classrooms here promote collaboration which also means having to adapt to the people I am working with. Everything about this abroad experience so far has been pushing me to learn and grow, even in my everyday habits, including time management as I am learning to balance homework with travel on the weekends. I can’t wait to see what else I will learn in my next three months here!