This is a picture I took of the incredible landscape of the Roman Forum. It was extremely hot and I forgot my sunglasses but it was a jaw-dropping experience. After this photo, me and my friend spent the next 5 hours exploring the area.

Author: Alex Elkins | Major: Spanish | Semester: Summer 2025
Hello, my name is Alex Elkins! For the 2025 summer academic session, I spent 5 weeks studying abroad in Rome, Italy. This location immediately piqued my interest during my research for studying abroad because of the general importance of the region as it relates to global relations, the endless number of historical monuments to explore, and the academic opportunities that are extremely relevant to my area
of study. As a Spanish major in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, I was originally set on studying somewhere in Spain during my junior year at the University, but I made an executive decision to expand the bounds of my cultural research after seeing the opportunities that this program provided. Through the University of Arkansas Rome Center Program, I was able to complete Elementary Italian I,
which fulfilled the requirement of an additional world language credit, as well as Introduction to Global
Studies/International Relations, which served as the primary foundation for my Global Studies minor.
Both of these courses expanded my knowledge of worldwide anthropological interactions and languages.
In the Italian course, we focused on useful everyday vocabulary since we would be able to
directly apply what we learned into our environment. This was extremely useful for getting around the
city, and I made sure to practice almost everywhere I went. I would try to translate sentences in my head
or consider how I would construct what I wanted to say in Italian in almost every scenario. This helped
me to be completely immersed and engaged in my learning, and I noticed myself picking up on Italian
much faster than I had with Spanish. At the same time, I noticed similarities in the grammar and
construction of the two languages that helped me to reinforce my knowledge of Spanish and the
differences in the Latin languages and even culture.
In the Global Studies course, we primarily focused on the concept of globalization and how it has
developed throughout humanity/civilization. The professor was extremely qualified and stressed the
importance of critical thinking and creating strong arguments to back our opinions. All of our projects and
assignments were tied to real-world events and had us do extensive research on current global
developments. This class was much more influential than I had anticipated, and it encouraged me to
actively pursue the remainder of my global studies minor.
Outside of class, we participated in numerous activities, including travel and museum visits.
Some of these were part of the program, such as the Vatican tour, the Colosseum tour, and the entirety of
the Florence trip, but a group of students and I also traveled independently. We took a day trip to Pisa to
visit the museums and botanical gardens, and we also had a beach day at Santa Marinella! These were all
incredible experiences, and I always felt like there was something to do. Going into this experience alone,
I was a little worried about making new friends, but after the first week, I had already met some
wonderful other students whom I would spend the remainder of the 5 weeks with.
Additionally, I made friends from all over the world throughout our expeditions. I met people
from Australia, Egypt, Ireland, Canada and many more. It was great to see that this experience not only
allowed me to fully immerse myself in a foreign environment but also enabled me to interact with an
incredibly diverse pool of people. At times, the overcrowded bus rides on the boiling hot streets of Rome
felt like a literal melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities. From locals, tourists, other students, and
entrepreneurs, there were so many people from so many backgrounds all sharing similar goals, like
surviving public transportation. I truly felt a part of the globalization we talked about in class.
In retrospect, my experience studying abroad has left me a completely changed person. Living
and studying in a foreign environment has changed the way I look at the world and how I choose to
interact with it. I am even more inspired to continue studying world languages and global studies, to be
more proactive, and to travel more! I am very grateful to have been able to participate in this program,
and I hope to gain more experience studying abroad in the future!