News - November 7, 2008

Spring 2009 reflects rising interest in SU Florence Options II and III programs

The Spring 2009 semester will see seventeen new candidates for the Option II program at SU Florence, students who have decided to expand their study abroad experience to include full immersion at the Centro di Cultura per Stranieri. Four of these students will also register for SUF’s Option III program and will study at the University of Florence, alongside their Italian peers, Humanities or Political Sciences.

This number marks a growing interest in these two academic challenges for SUF students at the advanced level of the Italian language. Comments Professor Antonella Francini, Coordinator for Option II and III programs, "The recent remarkable trend among these students is their desire to experience all three of the SUF study Options, combining courses offered at the SU Florence campus with classes at the Centro di Cultura and the University of Florence. This allows them to move back and forth among different cultures and teaching methodologies—from the American, to the Italian, to the cultures of their classmates coming from all over the world at the Centro di Cultura.

Spring 2009 student Charles Bufalino, Pomona College, notes, “When I decided to study abroad in Italy, improving my abilities in the language was my primary concern. Choosing the intensive language immersion program through SUF’s Option II was an obvious choice. Also, as a history major specializing in the Italian Renaissance, I felt that I had an extraordinary opportunity to further my studies in the Renaissance by taking a related class at the University of Florence. While I realize that it will be a challenge to take an academic course taught completely in Italian, I feel it is a necessary challenge, and one that I will enjoy.”

Continues Bufalino, “Perhaps the thing I'm looking forward to the most about participating in all three Options, is that it will expose me to a variety of peers. At SU Florence I will meet other American students. At the University of Florence, I’ll meet Italians who share my academic interests, and at the Centro I’ll have the opportunity to meet internationals who share my passion for Italian language and culture.”