UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — More than 100 Penn State students spent their spring breaks traveling the globe through seven College of the Liberal Arts embedded programs, which are courses taken on campus or online that include a short-term international travel component. The students saw the classroom come to life by visiting historical and cultural sites and interacting with local people.

Fourteen students taking SPAN 210N, IT 210N and PORT 210N had the opportunity to travel to Prato, Italy, for seven days as part of the Multilingual and Intercultural Communication embedded program in the College of the Liberal Arts. The course, taught by Lauren Halberstadt, assistant teaching professor of Spanish, focuses on linguistic strategies for succeeding in multilingual situations, as well as intercultural communication practices for navigating new environments.

In addition to developing and teaching the course, Halberstadt serves as the director of engaged scholarship for the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese in the College of the Liberal Arts. She created the course in 2021 to include alumni engagement and applicable skill-building that students could apply to their professional lives after graduation.

Halberstadt’s goal for the course was for her students to take what they learn and use that to become global citizens.

“The hope for this course specifically is to teach students how they can use their multicultural and language skillsets to enhance their professional aspirations,” she said. “And on a greater scale, I hope to help build students who enrich the lives of others, approach diverse environments with an open mind, and understand how to create and foster inclusivity and equity.”

Students learned how language and culture inform each other through the examination of cultures within the United States and internationally. The trip over spring break took the class to Prato, Italy, in the Tuscany region, where they immersed themselves in the city’s diverse cultures. The trip also included day trips to Florence and Bologna to explore museums and historical sites.

“This program is the result of years of planning, inter-university collaborations, alumni engagement and student education abroad,” Halberstadt said. “And last but not least, the students were a diverse cohort who leaned into all the new experiences, provided thoughtful reflection and elevated the trip with their unique perspectives.”

One of the reasons Halberstadt chose the location for the trip was because of the relationships she had built there over the years.

“My colleague at the University of Bologna, Maria Luisa Genova, brought her students to Penn State in February,” Halberstadt said. “They attended our class at Penn State University Park, and then we met with them when we visited Bologna in a true exchange that enriched the program.”

Another reason for the trip’s location was because Prato is an extremely diverse city where students could explore majority and minority cultures.

“For example, Prato has the largest Chinese population in Italy,” Halberstadt said. “My students visited restaurants like Ravioli Liu where they ordered Chinese food via Italian language menus, and we visited an Italian language school that teaches native Chinese speakers.”

The students shared photos from their trip on the @mictravelpsu Instagram account.

Clarissa Theiss, a first-year Schreyer Scholar double majoring in political science and criminology with a minor in classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, signed up for the course because of her interest in multilingual and intercultural communication.

“It's important to me to make an effort to engage with communities outside of my own,” said Theiss, a State College, Pennsylvania, native. “Even if you aren't fluent or completely comfortable with a language, making an effort to communicate with different groups of people is always worth trying. At the end of the day, that person won't remember a mistake you made but rather the conversation and authentic effort to connect.” 

Nicole Kruse, a fourth-year Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar majoring in history and Italian, participated in the trip as an engaged student scholarship coordinator for the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

While in Italy, Kruse said, students attended a language school that serves the growing Chinese-Italian population in Prato. The Penn State students were educated on the importance of cross-cultural communication and understanding and were able to collaborate and share their knowledge of Italian language with the students at the language school.

“As a language student, I greatly appreciated being welcomed into these spaces where I could practice my language skills and gain insight on the lives of students in other nations,” said Kruse, a Carmel, New York, native. “I have never been in a space that was so aware of cross-cultural communication, in such a multicultural setting, and mindful to ensure that each student was able to communicate effectively with others in these settings. There was support for everyone involved to communicate effectively and efficiently. This is something that I will carry with me in my future language learning studies, which may not always include individuals who have a native language in common.”

The class also met with two different Penn State alumni who live in Italy — Davide Autore in Florence and Nikolas Dussias in Bologna — who shared their knowledge and experiences with the students over meals.

In Prato, students had dinners with local families to learn firsthand about Italian culture and hospitality, and on the last night, students learned to make gnocchi, pesto and eggplant parmigiano for their farewell dinner.

“My favorite part about the trip was a dinner with a local host family,” Theiss said. “It helped demystify the idea of a foreign country, as I got to hear about the lived problems that Italy is grappling with today. Additionally, I got to navigate some of the differences in norms and traditions that we learned about in class, letting me practice adaptability and understanding.”

The trip provided an added benefit for Kruse — it allowed her to enhance her honors thesis, she said.

“We had the opportunity to tour critical historical and artistic attractions, which are experiences that are relevant to my thesis of artistic patronage in the Italian Renaissance,” Kruse said. “By attending this trip, I had access to the art, manuscripts, residences of former patrons and buildings of which I have been researching for my thesis, proving me with a greater understanding and comprehension of my thesis topics.”

The short-term travel component of the embedded program appealed to the students because it allowed them to gain experience going abroad without having to sacrifice an entire semester away from Happy Valley.

“I appreciate travel in the context of education and knew that this trip would provide me with an opportunity to go overseas in an academic context,” Kruse said. “I appreciate this, especially as a student of Italian and history.”

This trip was Theiss’s first international travel experience, and she appreciated the accessibility and structure.

“The detailed itinerary removed planning stress while still ensuring I had a meaningful and educational trip,” she said. “Additionally, since the embedded program connected with the material I had learned during class, the trip felt like more than just a vacation over spring break. It taught me valuable communication tools that I will continue to use in my personal and professional life.”

Several students received enrichment funding from the College of the Liberal Arts to support their international experience.

“The enrichment funding I received allowed me to travel without worrying about financial restraints, including flights and food,” said Theiss. “I more ambitiously experienced dining and travel opportunities abroad.”

Kruse said the college has helped her succeed in this experience in various ways.

“I utilized this funding to purchase tickets to diverse educational experiences such as art galleries, museums, travel and other immersive experiences,” she said.

Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network

The Career Enrichment Network empowers Liberal Arts students to explore, engage and define their career journey through diverse career development opportunities. Students can meet with a career coach to explore careers, internships, education abroad, research, the Liberal Arts Alumni Mentor Program and more. Through donor support, the Career Enrichment Network is able to provide Liberal Arts students with funding to support many of these experiences.