Imagine studying inside a 13th century tower, with medieval brown bricks circling your back. The sounds from an open-air market below drift up through open windows as people barter in Italian for fresh fruit and clothing. Next to the window, the renovated part of the tower proudly displays a purple and gold husky.
For UW students studying abroad in Rome, this picturesque dream is a reality.
The tower is dubbed the “Prow,” as it once extended from the temple of Venus in Pompey’s theater like the prow of a ship. Now, it’s a part of the UW Rome Center.
The UW began to restore parts of the Palazzo Pio, a collection of historic buildings, in 1984. A year later, students began to make the journey overseas for one of many Rome-based study abroad programs.
Unlike the homes of many study abroad trips, the UW Rome Center is a permanent fixture. The center not only assists students in navigating the city and provides emergency assistance, but also contains academic resources like a computer lab, library, and study areas.
“We work closely with faculty as well to help build programs, providing the types of administrative support that lets faculty focus more on the academic content of the program,” said Sheryl Brandalik, program administrator of the UW Rome Center.
The center is open year-round, with programs from several departments ranging from a few weeks to full academic quarters.
“At the Rome Center there are lots of options, including summer programs, short summer programs, and early fall programs that allow students to gain a lot of credits without disrupting their academic year,” Brandalik said. “[Students] don’t have to be studying Italian or art history to come to Rome.”
One example is the summer creative writing program, led by program director, Kevin Craft. Students spend five weeks in Rome, living in an apartment near the UW Rome Center, and exploring the city of Rome through writing.
The Rome Center itself overlooks the Campo de’ Fiori, a square with an open-air market filled with fresh fruit, vegetables, and even artisanal pastas. The bustling marketplace is sure to inspire creative writing students, and if not, the iconic, two-thousand-year-old Pantheon lies just a 10-minute walk away.
Although many students in the program belong to the creative writing or English major, plenty are also from other majors, which agrees with the complexity of Rome, said Craft.
“Rome is full of every discipline,” Craft said. “It was engineers who built Rome. It was early scientists, as they knew them, who first cataloged the natural world.”
Programs at the UW Rome Center have included astronomy with an art history focus, business, economics, and civil engineering, all of which embrace both the culture of Rome and the discipline of the study abroad course.
The center welcomes visitors from several colleges and campuses, ranging from UW Tacoma’s Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences to the Office of Minority Affairs at the Seattle campus. Some programs are even available for alumni and citizens-at-large to learn about Italian culture with the guidance of the UW.
Most programs choose to emphasize Italian culture, art, and architecture, all of which Rome is famous for.
The UW creative writing program keeps students busy, carefully balancing intensive work with sightseeing and the chance to flex their poetic muscles. Designed by the English department faculty, the program has students meet twice daily, once in the morning at a site location and once in the evening to discuss related writing.
“The grind of centuries seems to come out in the five weeks that we spend visiting in the morning and class in the evening,” Craft said.
Students in the program said they enjoy this style of study, not only for the long break between morning and evening classes, but also because it gives them time to absorb the information taught.
“I like that our program is set up in the morning and the evening so that it makes us adapt to the Roman culture,” senior Sarah Creech said. “It makes you feel more part of it … they want us to adapt to the culture here, not keep us on a traditional American school day.”
The encouragement to adjust to Italian culture still comes with the reassurance of assistance if needed, however students are encouraged to shop at the nearby market and cook their own meals with supplies provided by the center in the student apartments.
At least one UW faculty member normally stays inside the Rome Center, said Craft. Students have access to the building at all times with keys issued at the beginning of the program, so in emergencies, faculty and other resources can be located quickly.
It is also a place for students to ground themselves and excel in their studies. The center provides the amenities of home, while also encouraging students to branch out and explore unfamiliar territory.
“I like to think of it as a little piece of home turf right in the middle of the center of Rome,” Craft said. “That’s a lucky thing for a UW student to have.”
Reach writer Emma Bueren at features@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @EmBueren
