Olivia Belote in Rome

Olivia says:

My semester in Rome was defined by immense academic freedom. My program was all independent study, which meant that I spent most of my days touring through the city. Museums, ancient ruins, and beautiful gardens acted as my classroom while I was in Rome–interesting but a strange adjustment from the stressful schedule I typically have at Macalester. My program also only had one other student, so the time we did spend "as a class" with the professor was a wonderful one-on-one experience. We were free to guide our discussions wherever we liked, breeze over subjects we had little interest in, and focus on what our independent projects were about. While the freedom to explore any subject I was interested in was refreshing, I was limited to primary field sources and online material which proved to be difficult at times. Yet, overall the semester was fantastic! I spent so much time wandering through the streets of Rome that I was able to completely immerse myself in the culture and language–enough so that I became fluent in Italian!