Spring Break 2025 Participant
This trip was truly liberating, educating, and an absolute blast! I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the nooks and crannies of Italy daily, interweaving both the academic review of Italy's healthcare system and the cultural appreciation of the arts, foods, and simple societal practices of the country. I am incredibly grateful for all the institutions that hosted us, especially Caritas Rome and Meyer Children's Hospital in Florence. Both sites were on the top of my list for this study abroad, each one presenting unique takes on the Italian healthcare system in ways that were appealing to my career aspirations. Caritas provided a look at immigrant healthcare and how their fully volunteer-based service provides help for those who are unable to find access to the national Italian healthcare system. Julia, the director of the establishment, demonstrated true selflessness and a genuine drive to improve the lives of those from underrepresented and impoverished backgrounds. Meyer Children's Hospital offered a look at pediatrics in Italy and how the entirety of their institute is dedicated to improving the healthcare quality for children through offering benefits such as laundry, meals, schooling, and even 24-hour parental accompaniment for inpatients. Knowing that practitioners in Italy are not being paid nearly as much as U.S. practitioners demonstrates that those who have taken their jobs have done so out of genuine motivation to help people, which was incredibly refreshing for me.
Spring Break 2025 Participant
Talk to anyone and everyone! Take the long way and take wrong turns on purpose. Leaving the beaten path and striking up conversations with strangers made for the most memorable parts.
Spring Break 2025 Participant
I learned that being confident and bargaining with shopkeepers is very helpful when purchasing items because they tend to say a price that they think they could get away with from tourists.
