This picture is taken in the town of Bassano on the river below you can still see the environmental effects from WWI, including bullet holes in the nearby buildings where battles were fought.

Author: Thane Spencer | Major: Accounting | Semester: Summer 2023

This summer I had the blessing of being able to take two classes in the town of Paderno Del Grappa, Italy through the Cimba Italy study abroad program. I am very thankful for the University of Arkansas’s study abroad department and for the Honors College for helping me attain such an impactful experience.

Academics:

While I was overseas, I was enrolled in two courses Introduction to Finance and Introduction to Marketing. These courses were both essential for my academic career, I needed both credits to stay on time for my early degree plan. I was most excited about taking these classes though not for their credits or their impact on my graduation but for the broadening perspective of international business that I was able to attain. These credits allowed me to take a break from my typical very structured and rigorous accounting classes that I have been taking and allowed me to impower a more creative approach to problems. In my introduction to finance classes, we focused a lot on the projections and monitoring of portfolios, while also contrasting international investing strategies with many of the investment strategies in the United States, this scope of the course work allowed me to understand that there is not always just one solution to the problem or one way to make something work. My introduction to marketing classes was even more creative. In this class we go to learn about creative branding, product development life cycle in hands-on manners that allowed for us to see real Italian businesses and their marketing strategies. The biggest difference between the classes I took in my time abroad and the University of Arkansas would be the hands-on experience I was able to attain, while enrolled abroad I was able to take four class field trips which ranged from product tours to meetings with current CEO’s, and CFO’s who discussed how current events impacted their finance and marketing strategies.

Culture:

Being abroad this summer allowed for me to gain such a respect for other cultures while also allowing me to have an appreciation for the culture we have in the United States and more specifically in Fayetteville. On my first weekend I was able to go to Milan and Lake Como, my biggest take away from this trip was the pace at which the Italians go about their day, they value company and their free time. In Italian culture it is very common for companies to take a mid-day break which can range anywhere between 2 hours and the rest of the afternoon. On my second free weekend I was able to go to Pula, Croatia. When I was in Croatia, I go to meet some of the nicest people on the trip. Croatia is a country that has been through a lot historically, including many communist regimes, invasions, and other forms of persecution but to see how nice and happy the people there was extremely encouraging. On my final free weekend of the trip my friends and I decided to go to Paris, France. I will say this was by far the most similar culture to America, but still had many differences for starters we attended Lionel Messi’s last home game for the soccer team Paris Saint-Germain and got to witness how intensely people take their soccer in Europe. We also got to see historical sites like the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum. Arguably though, the experience that I will cherish the most is the after-class spur of the moment hike I was able to go on after class. On this hike we went 15 miles into the Italian Dolomites and reach the summit of Mount Grappa. At the top of this mountain there was an old Italian World War I monument and a stunning view. On this hike we were not only able to experience the true beauty of nature but also an appreciation for life and those who have come before me.

Advice:

I think one of the true beauties of studying abroad is being able to learn from your mistakes and find ways to adapt on the fly so in some ways I think everyone’s experience should be unique and full of mistakes but one thing that made my trip special was being able to do it with a couple friends that I will be able to share these memories with back in Fayetteville. Through a more practical lens though I would apply early for scholarships and for study abroad programs to allow for you to have time to get the most funding and plan the most of your trip. When I get back to the United States I simply cannot wait to go on a long run, eat chick-fil-a and play golf.