Who better to tell you about the Italy Center than its incredible alumni?
Spring Hill College
Academic Year 2017-18
International Studies
Why the Italy Center?
The Italy Center was my main purpose for choosing to attend Spring Hill College. I always knew that I wanted study abroad to be apart of my collegiate experience and the Italy Center offered a unique experience compared to other study abroad programs.
What should prospective students know?
Be open minded, think before you act, and live in the moment don’t try to capture every single thing
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
Learn to be flexible, reflect, and acknowledge your privileges even when you think you have none. There world is a crazy place but all it takes is one person willing to stand in solidarity to create a catalyst that leads to change.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
During our Social Justice Tour in Sicily we learned so much about the refugee crisis that was happening all across Europe. We had the opportunity to not only learn about what was happening in an objective/educational way but we were able to hear the stories of individuals that lived these realities. There was an opportunity for us all to have a community event and we spent the night dancing and celebrating life. It quickly reminded us all that whole life can be cruel there are still moments where we can appreciate what we have and how far we have been able to come.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Be prepared to not know how to have conversations about your experience. The Italy center offers such a unique experience and some times it is hard for individuals to not understand or truly care about the same things. Be prepared to find comfort in your cohort — it is always a way to help reconnect and talk about shared experiences that no one else will understand.
Clintisha Sellers
Spring Hill College
Spring 2022
English major, Philosophy minor
Why the Italy Center?
I had heard so many great things about the SHC Italy center especially from fellow Spring Hill students
What should prospective students know?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because they help you grow as person and they become the best stories.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
Studying abroad helped me learn that I can make connections with people anywhere I go, and that experiences in new places are made by the people you meet and surround yourself with.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
Meeting one of my now best friends, Jill Savoca! We took a trip to Bolzano, Italy and everything you can imagine went wrong, but it’s one of my favorite memories! We made mistakes, laughed about it, and we’re still laughing about it.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Have fun traveling on the weekends, but don’t forget to make the most out of your experience in Bologna and get to know the city you’ve been living and studying in!
Abby Palopoli
Regis University
Spring 2022
Nursing
Why the Italy Center?
I liked that it was a smaller program and location in Italy.
What should prospective students know?
Travel every weekend and experience as much as possible from the culture. It is so easy to get to place to place. You have to take advantage of this.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
Traveling is the best way to learn. Make the most of wherever you are to experience the most you can.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
Only one story, this is so difficult!! I think I will keep all my friends at Bar Lime close to my heart! This is where we would hangout with our Italian friends and where we met our Italian friends. The bar tender also knew us by name and would help us with our Italian and he was also a good friend of ours! If you go to Bar Lime you will see our picture on the wall!
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
The transition going back to the United States was more difficult for me than the transition to Italy from the United States. I was super excited for Italy and it was so exciting all the time. Then I came home and my friends weren’t back from college yet and life slowed down a ton. It just takes a little time to find a new groove because you were living somewhere else for so long. Also just to be patient with your friends. It is hard to describe the expierence aboard, it’s something you have the feel inside yourself to fully understand the importance and impact it has one yourself. So, it’s ok if your friends don’t fully understand your expierence, they most likely won’t. but that is why i found it so helpful to communicate with my other friends I did study aboard with when i felt home sick from Italy.
Krista Johnson
Spring Hill College
Summer 2025
Accounting Major and Financial economics Minor
Why the Italy Center?
Multiple of my friends had gone before me and had great experience and I really wanted to go because of how much fun they said it was.
What should prospective students know?
Freedom was a big part of something I wanted to be able to do what I wanted while I was there, and I feel like we definitely had a lot of freedom.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
That it isn't a right but a privilege to do things like this, especially after the Refugee camp which was one of the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
The going out party we had with the refugees kids later that night because we were able to dance and sing with them and even though we didn't understand each other it still felt like the greatest time ever.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Travel and get out of your room as much as you can because if you don't you will miss out on more than you know.
Hagan Resendez
Spring Hill College
Fall 2025
English/Biology
Why the Italy Center?
I chose to study so I could immerse myself in a culture other than my own.
What should prospective students know?
I expected to learn more, be humbled, and live outside my comfort zone.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
Love is universal. Being kind is universal. We are privileged in ways we may not even think.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
Laughing with Mohammed and his friend in Trieste. He had recently fled to Italy from Afghanistan/ the Taliban. His positivity and gratitude for where he was moved me. Not only this, but he welcomed me to stay at his home in Afghanistan if he were ever able to go back. This made those situations we here about in America real and as scary as the position he was in, he still was offering up things he did not have. That is raw kindness and welcoming I will never forget.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Go for it. Financials are not as big and scary as one thinks it will be compared to other universities. If you are thinking about it, just start putting a little money aside now.
Woody Brown
Creighton University
Fall 2024 & Summer 2026
International Relations
Why the Italy Center?
As both an incoming freshman and rising junior, the Italy Center provided unique and powerful opportunities to me to both grow and learn. I loved, also, the social justice emphasis, which is integral to understanding the world and our place in it.
What should prospective students know?
This program may challenge you more than other study abroad programs, but will shape you into a stronger, more well rounded, and capable version of yourself. The staff and students will become a family faster than you know, and they have your best interests at heart, always.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
Dive into the uncomfortable. Getting involved when moments are new and awkward will reward you with self growth, new connections, and so much fun. I think of the few times we got to dance and mingle with new communities :)
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
Sitting down for dinner at the social hub at roughly the same time every night to share stories and plan trips and laugh over the funny moments. This was a consistent joy within both cohorts I got to participate in.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Everything will pass eventually, the best times and the worst. The worst often become the funniest stories, so remember to appreciate difficult or boring moments all the same. In addtion, sometimes the best trips are the small ones you wouldn't normally take. Take advantage of the location and explore the cities nearby. Even more importantly, jump in on the trips with new people, you never know what will come of it!
Ellen Boettcher
Regis University
Fall 2025
Elementary Education
Why the Italy Center?
I was attracted to the small cohort size and the social justice piece of the program, too. I thought Italy would be a good, central location to study abroad, and it ended up being a perfect location.
What should prospective students know?
You are not going to get this cohort size and intimate, social-justice-oriented study abroad experience anywhere else. Bologna is such a fun town to get to know and walk around every day. The aspect of the Italy Center that might be most attractive to you at this point in your journey (and to your parents) is the support system of staff and faculty who are there for you when things go right or wrong, throughout the semester.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
The world continues to let me know how big it actually is, and how small I am comparatively. This ultimately has led me to my relationship with God, who has graciously given me this opportunity to be abroad and feel small, so that I can look at Him and realize how good He is and the world He has created.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
If I ever had a day or afternoon off from school or weekend travels, I would go traverse Bologna by myself. I tried to walk on new roads almost every day, and this was very fun and rewarding. I can still remember all of the streets I walked down, taking lots of pictures just like any American would. I was rarely alone, even on really quiet streets.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Get to know Bologna. Please do not walk only the road from the accommodation to the Italy Center. That is a very small fraction of Bologna. You don't have to go out of the country every weekend. Take the train for a couple of hours and find yourself in small-town Italy -- you might remember it more than an expensive flight. Sit down at the beginning of the semester and create a money plan for yourself. Being the person who didn't budget and having $0 to your name the last 2 weeks of study abroad is not fun. Work 2 jobs, save $5k-$10k, and you will thank yourself.
Stella Cahalan
Creighton University
Spring 2026
Accounting and Analytics
Why the Italy Center?
I chose to study at Spring Hill because I wanted an authentic Italian experience. Bologna is the perfect location because it’s surrounded by history and culture, along with being an easy area to travel out of.
What should prospective students know?
This program is awesome, you are in a small cohort of amazing people. My cohort was 25 students including myself. You have small class sizes which truly benefits your ability to learn. Not only do the PC’s care about you, but the professors as well.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
It’s important to enjoy what’s around you, slow down and enjoy the experience.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
Groups dinners everyday were awesome!!
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Enjoy the process, don’t just say you are gonna do things, actually do them before it gets to the last month and realize you haven’t done as much as you wanted to.
Megan Laing
Xavier University
Spring 2025
International Business, Italian minor
Why the Italy Center?
I chose to study with the Italy Center because I felt driven by the program as well as the city where it was located. I studied in Bologna and it was truly a dream come true!
What should prospective students know?
It is a fun program where you get to know and explore new cities by going there on in the classroom. It is also a great program because they focus on social justice so you get to learn and help in different ways on the different programs/activities they do during the semester to help others.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
You have to have be open minded with everything that you do and willing to step out of your comfort zone to fully immerse in different cultures, activities, services. Also, have a positive attitute always, that makes a big difference.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
I would go on weekend trips to different places close or far from Bologna with my two closest friends that I met there and every trip was an amazing trip because there is always something different in each of them and also I was grateful I met two guys that were as adventurous as me.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Be open-minded and positive always. People are friendly if you are friendly as well!
Ever Quinonez
Spring Hill College
Fall 2023
Computer Science, Mathematics/Philosophy
Why the Italy Center?
I was looking for a new experience that was going to get me out of my comfort zone. I also wanted explore cities that I've never been too and learn about their culture.
What should prospective students know?
It is one of the most profound experiences you can have as a Spring Hill College student. The program is very unique in that it provides you with a wonderful education and delivers many eye-opening service experiences focused around current social-justice issues.
What's one lesson you learned while you were studying abroad?
I discovered the resilience of humanity and what good a caring community is capable of. The most memorable experience that I had in Italy were the ones where I got to hear stories from people that have worked so hard towards a good cause or the individuals that were able to escape terrible situations.
Can you share a memory or story from your time at the Italy Center?
Getting the chance to play soccer with and hear stories from migrants who had travelled to Trieste, Italy was extremely eye-opening and memorable for me.
Is there any advice you'd like to share with current or prospective students?
Take advantage of every moment. Your time abroad will go by so much faster than you think and when you get to the end of it you will wish that you had more time. Experience as much as you possible can while you are there and don't let fear stop you from trying new things.
Zachary Thomas
Stay connected!
If you are an alum who wants to stay involved, share your experience, or donate to the Italy Center to support future students, fill out our form!
We can't wait to hear from you!
