U.S. Students Abroad: Lessons from Rome in Cultural Immersion

The objectives of the collaboration with Emiliane Rubat du Merac, faculty member in Education Sciences at the La Sapienza University whose research involves leadership development of students, is to enable students to explore multiple aspects of the education abroad experience of U.S. undergraduate students from the unique vantage point of personally experiencing a short-term, education abroad immersion simultaneously with focused study of this topic. The international city of Rome is each student’s “learning laboratory” and serves as the cultural context for the exploration of study abroad. Students are challenged to reflect on their own personal experience as they undertake their academic sojourn in Rome and to integrate their learning experiences with the research and topics that the course addresses. While time in a formal classroom occurs minimally we use that time for discussion and reflection on key topics related to education abroad. The course utilizes ‘engaged learning’ by moving beyond the traditional classroom setting into the city of Rome thus enabling students to engage with each other and with key informants at selected cultural, educational, religious, and historical sites within the city.