Wayne in Abruzzo

 We are the only program where American students live together with Italian university students, creating a global campus and a unique educational and cultural exchange. Spending the month in close contact with the students creates a vibrant and exciting, and yet rigorous, working environment, where students live the culture they studied in the classroom back in Detroit. 

 

 Each year, in Abruzzo, I host weekly workshops with a local poet and artist, Prof. Pietrantonio Bernabei. Students have hands-on experience reading, experimenting with, and creating visual poetry. We also visit his studio to talk and see his latest artistic creations. I also take my students to a local restaurant where they learn how to make handmade traditional pasta, recognize and pick herbs and spices, prepare sauces and then share in the conviviality with guests of the restaurant, eating and singing at the table! 

 

                                                                                    While in Abruzzo, my job goes beyond regular teaching hours, and extends to extra-curricular activities during the weekends as well. We take field trips to Pompeii and Naples, Rome and Florence. We organize excursions in the area for olive oil and cheese tasting, or organize hikes and picnics in the Regional Park where our program takes place.  

 

 

 

 

It is an intense month, but it is a unique and life-changing experience for the students, who truly come to love my country, its language, and its culture. Many returns home enthusiastic and transformed, better-prepared and more focused for graduation and future careers.