Southern Arkansas University students prep for educational trip to Italy in May

About 30 people, including 20 students from Southern Arkansas University, will be traveling to Italy in May 2019 on an educational mission that will extend the college experience far beyond the classroom.

Dr. Ed Kardas, professor of psychology and director of the Honors College, said the Italy tour is “intrinsically educational” and will expose students and adults to Venice, Florence and Rome over 10 days. The group is scheduled to leave the Unites States May 13 and return May 22.

They will be traveling with EF College Study Tours. Kardas thanked the SAU Foundation for its support. “By partially funding student travel, the Foundation allows more students to take advantage of these learning opportunities,” he stated in a press release.

The first stop on the itinerary is Venice, where the group will enjoy dinner, learn about glass-blowing in a local craftsman’s shop and take a guided tour that includes St. Mark’s Square and the Grand Canal.

The group will then travel to Florence, where a local guide will highlight the Piazza della Signoria, the Ponte Vecchio, the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Gates of Paradise. The tour will then proceed, via Assisi, to Rome.

In Rome, the group will visit the Basilica of St. Francis, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps.

Also included on a guided tour of Rome will be the Forum, the Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum. The group will also tour the Vatican.

“It’s one thing to read and study about other places, but it’s quite another to actually be in the location where history was made and cultures evolved,” Kardas said of the importance of trips like this one.

He said he was last in Italy at the age of 5. “My grandparents had a nice apartment in Naples with a view of Vesuvius. I could see the volcano glowing at night,” he said.

Final deadline for students and nonstudents to sign up is Feb. 4, 2019. Those interested in accompanying the tour can still apply for individual travel scholarships to do so. Anyone may sign up regardless of their affiliation. For more information, email Kardas at epkardas@saumag.edu.