ABROAD
In the Summer of 2025 I spent five weeks in Sorrento, Italy and these were my experiences...
Education
While abroad, I took two courses; Multidisciplinary Perspectives of the Bay of Naples and Marine Biology. Professor Paloma Rodriguez is the UF professor who accompanied us to Sorrento and taught the Multidisciplinary Perspectives class. Professor Domenico Sgambati is the Italian professor at Sant'Anna Institute who taught the Marine Biology course.
Social
While living in Sorrento, I became very close with my classmates from UF and the other students living in the dorms at Sant'Anna. Over the five weeks abroad I went through many new cultural experiences, some of which pushed me out of my comfort zone. I think these experiences allowed me the opportunity to grow and learn in ways I had not expected.
Adventure
While abroad, I went on many adventures both on my own and through the courses I took. Places outside Sorrento I visited while in Italy include, Rome, Naples, Amalfi, Ravello, Ieranto Bay, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Paestum, Castellabate, Salerno, Florence and Caserta.
COURSES:
The two courses I took while abroad include:
IDS4956: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Bay of Naples
MSC113: Introduction to Marine Biology
IDS4956: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Bay of Naples
While studying abroad in Sorrento, the University of Florida course I took was Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Bay of Naples. This course was taught by Professor Paloma Rodriguez who accompanied our class to Sorrento. The course focused on a range of topics and offered an immersive structure. Each class session featured one or two guest speakers who were all Italian locals and experts in their fields. These speakers presented on a broad range of topics, including the Italian mafia, marine conservation, volcanology, immigration, religion, and social inclusion in Southern Italy. The speaker’s insights offered a local perspective which greatly enriched my understanding of the area's culture. Professor Rodriguez also lectured on subjects such as attitudes surrounding prostitution in ancient Rome and World War II.
In addition to classroom learning, the course included four field trips that helped reinforce the material covered in lectures. We visited Naples, Herculaneum, the Amalfi coast and took a weekend trip to Paestum and Castellabate. These trips provided hands-on opportunities to engage with the history and culture we studied in class. The assignments for class were very creative and also helped reinforce material from lectures. Some of the homework even included watching Italian films on the mafia and immigration and field trip scavenger hunts. It was very helpful to go into class with some background on the topics being presented by the guest speakers, which the assignments helped provide. The combination of lectures, creative assignments, local guest speakers, and immersive field trips created a well rounded learning experience for me.
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Click here to view one of my scavenger hunt collages.
MSC113: Introduction to Marine Biology
While studying abroad in Sorrento, the course I took at Sant’Anna Institute was Introduction to Marine Biology. This course was taught by Professor Domenico Sgambati who is an impressive marine biologist and Italian local. This course covered foundational topics of marine biology such as ocean geology, the physical and chemical properties of water, currents and circulation, biodiversity, taxonomy, primary producers, invertebrates and vertebrates. In addition to lectures, we also went on two field trips. The first field trip was to the Bay of Ieranto. The bay is a medium protected (yellow zone) marine conservation area. The field trip consisted of three stations; kayaking, free swim and snorkeling. The second field trip was to an Aquarium in Naples.
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All the activities in and out of class facilitated a deeper understanding of the marine environment. Extra credit assignments were available throughout the course which allowed for extra points on the final exam as well as complimentary activities to the lectures. Marine conservation was a big theme throughout the course and learning about conservation efforts in Italy helped me draw connections to efforts back home. In addition to the written final exam there was an oral presentation component. For the presentation, I was assigned a phylum and a class and needed to choose a specific organism. I chose the sand dollar as my organism and created a 10 minute presentation around my research. Through my investigation of sand dollars I learned more about their habitat, life cycle, feeding habits and reproduction among other things.
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​​​Click here to view my sand dollar presentation.