Washington County Enterprise-Leader
NWACC Offers Study Abroad Program
NWACC UNVEILS PROGRAMS FOR 2020 SCHOOL YEAR
What is it about Tuscany that captures Americans’ hearts and imaginations? Why does this section of Italy a few hours north of Rome and about an hour south of Florence, edged on the west by the Ligurian Sea and on the east by a jiggedy-jaggedy boundary line that makes the region look on maps like a conch shell, have such a pull on the imagination?
It seems people from the Ozarks have a special affinity for the region.
Maybe it’s the fact that much of Tuscany looks a lot like the Ozark hills. The main differences are Italians chose to build on top of their knobs and hills instead of in the valleys; the white rocks peeking through the soil and brush are marble, not limestone; and the herbs Americans deliberately plant and carefully tend to flourish abundantly and wildly in Tuscany, scenting the air with rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano and marjoram.
Love of Tuscany
In her book Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mays shares in exquisite detail her and her husband’s love of Tuscany, specifically Cortona, on the far eastern edge of the region. Mayes talks about her interactions with locals as they do the repair, renovation, and updating work on the villa she and her husband bought, but she also spends some pages telling about the Etruscans, the long-gone people whose tombs are still being discovered in the fields and among the hills of Tuscany.
In his travel book Florence & Tuscany, 17th edition, Rick Steves wrote, “Judging from the frescoes and many luxury items that have survived, the Etruscans enjoyed the good life,” and in their art they “celebrated individual people, showing their wrinkles, crooked noses, silly smiles, and funny haircuts.” Maybe it’s that the Etruscans were onto something similar to “easy does it” and “don’t worry, be happy.”
Siena, in particular, seems to represent a continuation of this Etruscan attitude. Citizens and visitors walk on paving stones trod by famous artists, political leaders, popes, and scoundrels who live on in the art, architecture, laws, policies, and memorable acts of revolution they left behind. That connection to the past may feel a little like time travel.
Extraordinary Architecture
Day and night, people choose one, two or three flavors of gelato or a slice of pizza at one of the shops that line the streets and eat as they stroll, seeing one extraordinary scene of architecture after another, or they sit on the bricks that pave Il Campo, Siena’s town square, and take in the Gothic civil architecture juxtaposed with modern-day clothing and hair styles parading here and there. The Etruscans could probably come back to life and feel comfortable there, where almost anything goes and some haircuts and hair styles look rather funny.
City Hall and its City Tower, known locally as Torre del Mangia after the nickname of its first bell ringer, form most of one side of Il Campo. The tower, started in 1325 and “presumably ended in 1349,” according the Santa Maria della Scala Tourist Information Office pamphlet “Siena,” rises high above the square and watches over the town and The Fountain of Joy, opposite City Hall.
This fountain, bounded on three sides with reproductions of marble relief sculptures, shows scenes of some of the history of Siena and were created as a gift of gratitude for having water in the city center when the fountain was finished in 1343, “after almost ten years of excavation,” according to the pamphlet. The fountain provides art, narrative, a hint of coolness in the hot summer and clean water from spigots, all for free. Badly eroded remains of the original Fonte Gaia sculptures are displayed in the Santa Maria della Scala museum, located across Piazza del Duomo from the Duomo, a 13-century cathedral built in the Romanesque-Gothic style and in which works by Pisano, Donatello, Michelangelo, Bernini, along with many other master artists, offer a feast for the eyes and heart as well as Catholic worship services for the faithful.
All of these sites and too many more to be named here are within easy walking distance of each other. In fact, an average person could walk around Siena’s city wall in about a half a day, possibly less.
NWACC In Italy
If this has stirred an interest in studying and living in Siena, one option for going is “NWACC in Italy,” one of Northwest Arkansas Community College’s study abroad programs.
The community college officially started a study abroad program in 2016, and “NWACC in Italy” was the first. All study abroad programs include an NWACC instructor teaching a course for which students earn college credit, but sometimes a program will accept students who wish to audit the course, subject to instructor approval, according to the study abroad website. Folks who audit a course within a study abroad program must pay for it the same as for-credit students do. According to the website, enrollment in an NWACC course is required to participate.
Besides Italy, 2020 study abroad programs are set to take place in Greece, Germany, Spain and Morocco, England, Columbia, and Belize.
Jeremy Youmans, director of Study Abroad at NWACC, said the programs of study will be within the five-week Summer I session, which in 2020 will likely begin May 26 and end June 30.
Youmans said the course options for 2020 study abroad include certified retail analyst for a week in Columbia, a health professions-related course for 10 days in Belize, psychology for two weeks in Germany, and language, photography, and cooking in June in Siena, Italy.
NWACC in Italy is the only study abroad program the college offers that has a set base of operations and lasts a full month, Youmans said. He said the other NWACC study abroad programs move from location to location during the trip although there may be some stops of several nights in one location.
Students who enroll in NWACC in Italy are automatically enrolled in an Italian language class taught by Italian instructors at the Universita per Stranieri di Siena, and then they must also take a course taught by an NWACC instructor. For NWACC in Italy 2020, the NWACC course offerings will include digital photography and Italian cooking, to be taught at the Societa Dante Alighieri Culinary School Siena. Digital photography will be taught for the fourth year in 2020 by Victor Chalfant, and the cooking class will debut in 2020 with Brightwater instructor Vince Pinalto.
The cost for NWACC in Italy ranges from $4,600 to $6,000, according to the NWACC study abroad website, and this price includes transportation to Siena and back, lodging in Siena, transportation and lodging for side trips to significant cities and sights, and several group meals.
Past Participants
Bradi Matlock, international studies major at NWACC and participant of NWACC in Italy 2019, said, “A study abroad trip is required for my degree, and we could choose any of [the offered programs], but I chose the longest trip, Siena, Italy.”
She said, “Siena is small enough that everyone welcomes you, unlike Rome and Florence. The people in Siena were incredibly kind and welcoming. Everyone we encountered brought us in as a friend.”
NWACC alumna Carrie Siegfried-Haase, who participated in the 2018 Italy program, said in her blog post on the NWACC study abroad web site that she found “being immersed in a foreign culture … personally transformative.” She said she realized “I’m not as old as I think I am. I’m a lot stronger than I think I am, and far more resilient.” A non-traditional student, Siegfried-Haase said she ended up bringing her daughter Isabell, who then brought along two of her friends. Siegfried-Haase said, “We took [our] own little family on the NWACC Italy trip.”
She said the program “truly pushed me, and everybody on that trip out of their comfort zone.”
Both Matlock and Siegfried-Haase said they received scholarships to help defray the cost of the program, but while Seigfried-Haase’s was tied to study abroad, Matlock’s was a general NWACC academic scholarship. Visit www. nwacc.edu to find out more about general scholarships at NWACC.
Youmans said deposits are required to secure a spot in study abroad, and due dates vary with each program. He said each participant must be paid in full by February 28, 2020. Youmans said information sessions about each program will be offered in the coming weeks.
Additional information about NWACC study abroad programs, scholarships, and costs and to see dates for information sessions is offered at www.nwacc.edu/ studyabroad or call 479-6192224. DENISE NEMEC, WHO TEACHES COMPOSITION AND JOURNALISM AT NWACC, PARTICIPATED IN NWACC IN ITALY IN JUNE 2019. SHE MAY BE REACHED AT DENISENEMEC@ ME.COM.