Students in faculty-led course forge connections while exploring southern Italy

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Seventeen Penn State students swapped State College for southern Italy this summer, immersing themselves in the region’s language and culture.

They were taking part in the College of the Liberal Arts’ faculty-led course in Salerno, Italy, a six-week-long excursion led by Eleonora Sartoni, assistant teaching professor, assistant director of the Italian Language Program and director of the Salerno Summer Program, and Emily Meneghin, lecturer of Italian. The course was one of 12 faculty-led programs offered through the College of the Liberal Arts this summer.

The program brought students overseas to encourage the exploration of Italian culture and society, with a focus on the Campania region and southern Italy. Some of these locations, Sartoni said, are not typically study abroad destinations.

“Abroad programs in Italy tend to concentrate in Florence and Rome, so I’m happy that our destination is in Salerno,” Sartoni said. “This city is not congested with tourists and yet, it’s a very convenient base for our trips to famous and less famous sites.”

Consisting of 13 trips around southern Italy, the course offered students a range of immersive experiences and learning opportunities, with visits to both popular and lesser-known Italian sites.

“I am very happy about this because one of the main goals of the program was to engage with local communities and understand what is under the patina of mass tourism and Insta-worthy landscapes,” Sartoni said.

Academics stayed central to the program throughout the excursions. In Rome, students linked their classroom discussions to the city’s landscape, highlighting the marks Mussolini left on its architecture and public spaces. In Salerno, lessons spilled into the streets, where students read the works of local poet Alfonso Gatto against the backdrop of his hometown.

These experiences provided students with the opportunity to apply what they were learning in real time, blending language practice, cultural exploration and history lessons in ways that a classroom alone could not. Excursions included a pasta cooking class, ceramic workshop, boat tour and more.

One trip in particular, the lemon path hike in Maiori and Minori on the Amalfi Coast, was a student favorite. Olivia McClure, a fourth-year student from Greencastle, Pennsylvania, majoring in political science with minors in Italian and labor and human resources, and Ryan Murphy, a third-year student from Bensalem, Pennsylvania, majoring in political science, both said this was their favorite trip of the program.

“In this excursion, we spent the morning hiking the lemon path between the two cities,” McClure said. “We then spent the afternoon in Minori, where we had lunch and swam.”

Murphy enjoyed learning about the work and dedication that go into maintaining the lemon path, whereas McClure cherished the sense of connection the trip provided to the group.

“I think it was the first time the group really bonded,” McClure said. “We were all swimming and jumping off a dock together, and it was all in all a great day.”

What stood out most to the students was the sense of community the program fostered, both within their group and with the locals of Salerno. Meneghin said this bond was especially meaningful, since it was her first year co-leading the program, and this year’s group was the largest to date.

“I grew a lot myself co-leading this program with my colleague, and it’s due to my students,” Meneghin said. “I’ve lived and worked in Italy before, but it is the bonds and relationships formed within our little Penn State community that taught me optimism, curiosity, patience, self-care, community-care and joy.”

The participants didn’t just bond with each other, but also with the local community and their host families. Katie Stum, a third-year student from Harrisonburg, Virginia, majoring in global and international studies and Italian with minors in political science and global security, formed a unique relationship with her host mom, Bianca.

“I believe completely that my host mom improved my Italian learning,” Stum said. “Without her, I wouldn’t have had as much exposure to the language. She genuinely was amazing and even threw me a birthday party!”

For people like McClure, leaving the country to live with a different family is a nerve-racking experience.

“I was a little skeptical about this at first,” McClure said. “Our host family didn’t know any English, but they were some of the greatest people I’ve ever met. They were so encouraging as we were trying to talk to them. They made my overall experience better, and I miss them already.”

Murphy said the local community made Salerno feel like a home away from home.

“I would wave to the owners of a coffee shop every day on my way to class,” Murphy said. “There was a little store under our apartment, and every night, my roommates and I would chat with the store workers about our day. I think about the people I connected with often, and it’s truly those moments that make studying abroad so wonderful.”

Meneghin said living with host families and having independence during their free time provided the students with great exposure to Italian culture, and navigating conversations with native speakers whose actions and replies aren’t controlled, as they are in a classroom, helped them grow and deepen their knowledge.

Sartoni knows how challenging this can be for students, but she takes pride in how they adapt to these obstacles.

“I love seeing students using Italian in their everyday life, adopting new routines and putting themselves out there while gaining confidence,” Sartoni said. “I really love leading this program.”

The confidence gained from this experience has encouraged Murphy and Stum to enhance their Italian and international relations skills. McClure, meanwhile, is taking it as inspiration for her future, realizing she wants to live abroad.

“It got me out of my comfort zone and made me new lifelong friends,” she said. “The experience felt like a fever dream, and ever since I got back, I’ve been planning ways to get back there as soon as I can.”

This is precisely what Meneghin and Sartoni aimed for as program leaders.

“Their observation, that there is more than one way of living life, is so important,” Meneghin said. “That’s why students benefit from studying abroad — it expands their world to consider more possibilities.”

Liberal Arts students interested in education abroad can learn more about faculty-led programs and enrichment funding through the College of the Liberal Arts.