Maymester in Rome

Student Comments from the Class of 2005

Six months after we returned from Rome, I asked students who participated on the trip to tell me 1) how they would recommend the trip to other students (if they would), and 2) what I should do differently the second time around. All of the answers I received are below. (I helped the spelling out a little but made no other changes).

1) Recommending the Trip: 

• Going to Rome was truly the highlight of my college career.  From the variety of sites scheduled that we visited, supplemented by morning and noon lectures, readings, and experiential field trips, while having the opportunity of living right there in the city with both a rich past and a bright future, the Rome Humanities program was exactly what I had hoped my study abroad experience would be.
  
  
• The Humanities abroad for engineers program allows you to disconnect from the small bubble life which is engineering. Student life can often shrink into a bland routine. This course thrusts you back into humanity, sometimes literally as you will see at the Porta Portese. Rome is indeed a living shrine to western culture and one ought to go pay homage at some point. So get out of the library and treat yourself to gelato. Oh, and of course engineers receive three upper division humanities credits, how very sensible - now you engineers have to go!
  
  
• It is great to hear from you and I am happy to see that you are teaching the course again. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I don’t think I ever really thanked you for accepting me on the program.  Thank You!!! I benefited from so many aspects of the course and from you and your colleagues knowledge of this history, architecture and events that shaped Rome. Being there was amazing and I wish the course had been longer.
  
  
• I want to commend you on your impressive skills in picking the people for the class.  I like how serious you were in the interviews about the course being a learning experience. I think it weeded a lot of people out who may have been going for the wrong reasons.  I felt the group we had, including yourself and Joy, fit together perfectly. I could not have put together a better group of people to spend that time with and I felt that you really did a great job in finding the right people.  Joy was also great to have along and if she cannot make it next year I hope you can find someone a lot like her.
  
  
• Culture Wars in Rome was nothing short of amazing! I know it may seem that Wayne is a little too excited about the course right now but once you are in Rome and able to discover the culture, history, and architecture of the Roman’s first-hand like he has, you will know why he is so thrilled to be doing this. Wayne’s knowledge combined with that of his friends and colleagues in Rome really makes this course an everlasting experience you will find to be priceless.
  
  

• Thank you for the good times and memories we found in Rome…
  
  

• A wonderful eye-opening experience, where your interests are invoked.
  
  

• Enjoy an inside view of one of the oldest cities in the world.
  
  

• It was a trip of a lifetime, honestly, I've made the best friends through this trip than I have in all my years at CU.  I was able to see things that I never imagined I would get the opportunity to stand in front of or touch.
  
  

• This was the highlight of my college career at CU!  Rome is an incredibly rich city, and there was so much to discover!  Learning about Rome's history while enjoying authentic Roman pizza and culture was an unforgettable experience.  Although the trip seemed to fly by, I learned more in those two weeks than I have learned in several of my semester-long courses.  Actually understanding the history behind the famous Roman architecture and art made me appreciate the beauty of culture and importance of knowledge of the past.
  
  

• Culture Wars was a once in a lifetime experience.  It was my first trip to Europe and I can hardly wait to go back; although Rome won't be the same without Wayne, Joy and my 20-or-so other traveling companions!
  
  

• Thanks again for an amazing class and trip to Rome!  I hope all is well!
  
  

• Good luck with Culture Wars in 2006!  I wish I could go again because I had such a great time!

2) Proposed Changes:

• If you keep the group projects, have the groups meet before leaving for Rome. It would be so much easier and productive to go to Rome with an idea of what you will be focusing on within your time period.
  
  
• Honestly, I would not change much about the course.  The reading packet was very useful but I think it may have been a bit too long or maybe just a little overwhelming which was a little discouraging at times.  Don’t get me wrong, all of the information was very useful and it definitely served its purpose both during the course and also for years to come when you want to refer back to something but from what I got from many of my fellow students was that they thought it was a bit too exhausting and therefore they didn’t read a lot of what was in there.  The only way I see to remedy this problem would be to a) require that the students include something from the packet in their daily assignments to make sure they are learning from it and at least using it or b) narrow down the information to highlight the most important aspects of each subject in there. To do this, you may include some kind of outline either in or after the table of contents so the students can refer to it and then know where to go to in the readings to get the specifics. I know that would be a lot of work but it may help students get more out of the reading packet.  The only other suggestion I have is to make the three separate groups work together more so everyone can learn more about the three Rome’s.  I feel like the students would benefit more if they could see what the other groups were working on because we didn’t really have time to look at the other group’s projects before the trip was over. A possible solution to this might be to take a couple of people from each of the three separate groups and rotate them through the other groups on certain days so they can get a feeling of the other Rome’s. This would also help the students in the end when they are comparing and contrasting the Culture Wars in Rome. That’s it!
  
  

• As for changing the course, I can truly say that nothing, I repeat, nothing needs to change!!!!  It was a wonderful experience and I cannot think of anything negative about it.... some ideas that you may want to add, however, might be to have a little language overview at the very beginning of the trip and maybe you could have one night (where it would normally be free time) and show an Italian movie- one of the many we learned about. I think it would be a fun addition.
  
  
• The suggestions that I have are to
  • Only have one group meal per day...(too much food). Sometimes it was too much food, but I felt like I had to eat it because it was there.
    
• Stick with the group in the Vatican and the Coliseum. These two sites are among the most famous places in Rome and it would have been nice to get more guidance in appreciating them even more.
  
  
• To answer your question:
  I would have liked to have reading that was more focused and linked to what we learned each day.  I got lost and confused with some of the readings, but I would have liked to have more explanation or more references to what I was reading.  Also, a more focused final project.  I enjoyed the freedom we were given to choose whatever topic we wanted to discuss, but I also felt a bit overwhelmed because we had learned so much, I didn't even know where to begin and what to include or leave out.
  
  

• I'm so glad to hear that you are doing the trip again next year.  Gosh, the only thing I can think of to change is making the assignments a little more clear and don't allow kids to slack because then kids like me won't turn them in on time. I'm also kind of sad that we didn't get to tour the Coliseum as a group.