Service Learning in SienaIn addition to learning the culture and language of Italy, students in Siena involve themselves in Italian life through volunteer work and internships
by Antonio Artese and Randy Arnold
The program takes advantage of Siena’s 1000-year history of urbanism, its rich artistic and architectural heritage, and its well-established social services system. As a key center during the Middle Ages, Siena enjoyed an important location on the main route connecting Rome with major centers of Northern Europe. Urbanism flourished, resulting in well-developed support facilities, including some 50 hospitals of varying sizes, objectives, and architectural splendor. Throughout the centuries the hospitals administered to the sick, and also became the living preserves of local medicine, culture, and art. Today their legacy remains as rich in charitable work as it is in art, architecture, and culture. “Siena, in particular, opens your mind and inspires you,” says Antonio Artese, EAP Associate Director in Siena. “Whoever walks and lives here—even for a short time—will be able to breathe in and incorporate an outstanding amount of culture, arts, architecture, and beauty.” “I began studying Italian with the desire to communicate with
my ‘nonna italiana’—my grandma—and ended up with the capacity
to communicate with the whole culture. Because the Siena experience
presents a network of opportunity, one must go with the intention
to achieve a goal and inevitably
you will go beyond it.” The internship option began in the fall of 2003. Opportunities in Siena include volunteer work with local rescue and social services, where EAP students are trained to perform certain medical tasks, and then conduct fieldwork, including work onboard ambulances. Students can also participate in an education and language tutoring internship in which they work with local public schools and tutor Italian students studying English. Art history is an integral part of EAP students’ studies in Italy, and students may further their knowledge by interning at the Museum Santa Maria della Scala, where they can familiarize themselves with general museum operations while getting to know the rich artistic heritage of the museum’s collection. Students who take EAP’s higher-level Italian language may participate in the Volunteer Course in Library Services. In this option students fully employ their Italian language skills as they assist library patrons, and provide critical basic assistance to the library itself by translating signs and working on the library’s website. The EAP Siena program also includes an Italian culture class that focuses on “Siena and Florence in the Middle Ages” and “Three Thousand Years of Wine Culture in Italy.” The course includes excursions to Florence, Pienza and Montalcino, Villa Casale in Greve in Chianti, and a three-day art history excursion to major cities of Italy. The EAP Siena program is a one-term option open to UC students who are at least at the sophomore level, and have a minimum 2.5 GPA. Previous study of Italian is not required. “Studying abroad is a courageous and rewarding experience that, in my opinion, every student should do in his or her academic career,” Artese said. |
|
|
C students are learning beginning Italian in the classroom
and heading out for the field. As part of a special experiential
program in Siena, Italy, students doing internships are gaining
hands-on experience working in public agencies, such as schools,
libraries, art museums, and in emergency medical services. 
