Dozens of SRJC students are mentally preparing for what some may call the experience of a lifetime: to study abroad in Florence, Italy for spring 2012.
“Students who participate in the program often describe it as an experience that changed their lives,” George Freund, SRJC instructor of Philosophy and Religious Studies said. “It broadens their minds and provides them with the skills to feel at home as citizens of the world.”
Instructors from Northern Ca-lifornia community colleges will teach classes in English with an Italian emphasis. Freund estimates approximately 130 students will participate in the Florence Program, with about 45 from SRJC.  He will be one of four instructors teaching in Florence, and previously taught in Florence in spring 2009.  “It was an amazing experience for me to become immersed in Italian culture, history and ideas,” Freund said.
To be eligible for the program, students must be at least 18, have completed 12 units of college coursework, and have a cumulative 2.0 grade-point average at the end of the 2011 fall semester.  Priority application submission is Oct. 7, but applications will still be accepted until Nov. 3, if there is still availability.
Mary Sennello, an SRJC student with a passion for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, is taking part in the Spring 2012 Florence trip.  “Florence was such a central part in the Renaissance and was an important city throughout early history,” Sennello said.  “I thought it would be an awesome opportunity for me.”
Sennello took Italian I without plans to go on this trip. “I continued into Italian II because I was really set on doing this program,” Sennello said.  “I thought it would be a lot of fun to go there; plus it’s Italy, why wouldn’t I want to go?”
SRJC student Jared Gilster traveled to Florence in spring 2010 to escape Sonoma County and experience something new. “I thought living in a foreign country would be the best way to do that,” Gilster said. “My biggest surprise when I arrived was the amount of freedom I had. I wasn’t prepared for that and I just wanted to have fun and experience the culture, which was good, but my grades suffered a lot.”
Gilster learned to keep school his first priority, but was still able to experience Italy. “There are so many restaurants, bars, clubs, museums, and libraries in Florence, I didn’t even see all of them with the three months I was there,” Gilster said.
High points of his trip included: seeing art, underage drinking, going to class drunk and eating Italian food, he said. He also enjoyed snowboarding in Switzerland and traveling to Greece, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Venice.
“Take half the amount of clothes you are bringing and bring twice the amount of money,” is Gilster’s best advice to those planning on studying abroad. “You might get lonely or homesick. Find a close friend you don’t mind traveling with, eating lunch with or sitting on a train next to.  Those little things make the study abroad experience what it is.”
The hardest part about studying abroad for most is the transition of returning home.  For Gilster, re-entry to a house with parents after complete freedom and independence was the hardest part. “I was glad to be home and I had a bigger appreciation for the life I had at home, and my parents who made my study abroad experience possible.”
For more information, check out the Study Abroad website.