Kelly Leahy, senior in Media, traveled to Rome in late May with a group of 17 students also in the College of Media. For Leahy, the three and a half week trip was not only a great way to get course credit, but it also broadened her horizons and helped her get a better understanding of cultures outside of the United States.

“I had never been out of the country before,” Leahy said. “Our program was different because we got to experience a lot of things that tourists normally don’t get to.”

Leahy said the small group went on excursions to a buffalo mozzarella cheese farm and vineyards that the program’s coordinator had set up for them. The trip emphasized branding in Italian cuisine, focusing on how Italians brand their foods differently than Americans.

“It is about the food, which of course was delicious,” Leahy said.

Leahy and her classmates visited local bakeries, specialty shops and outdoor markets to gain a better understanding of doing things the Italian way. Though Leahy admits she does not know the language well, she said she was still able to navigate through Rome and Cilento easily.

“I spoke zero Italian, but since Rome is heavily populated by tourists, a lot of Italians speak some broken English, so you can communicate with them,” Leahy said.

Leahy learned to speak some Italian while abroad, however — she can now order food and ask for different food products and utensils. Though Leahy had not studied abroad prior to this summer, she said the program was perfect because she was still able to experience all of the advantages of the program without having to leave campus for an entire semester.

Other students jetted off to Central America this summer, visiting Honduras to volunteer for Global Medical Brigades. The RSO, part of a larger network of universities, worked to alleviate some of health care problems there.

Sammy Singh, senior in LAS, traveled with the brigades to Honduras for 10 days in an effort to provide free medical aid to nearly 400 people per day.

“It really puts a face on the kinds of problems that are going on,” Singh said. “It just gave me a really different perspective on things. It’s real, it’s not just a commercial, it’s not just something you read about.”

The trip costs around $1,500, but most volunteers raised money by sending out sponsor letters to family and friends, Singh said. Singh’s trip was almost entirely paid for because he was able to find enough sponsors.

“It’s totally worth it,” he said. “I know prior to that moment, I could look back at my life and say ‘I haven’t done anything really special’, but now I can say that [the trip] is something I’ll remember forever. You can’t put a price tag on that.”

Scott Lotz, senior in LAS, went on the Honduras trip in summer 2008 and this past summer.

During the first summer, he stood in as a Spanish translator for some of the construction workers and doctors on site. Though Lotz had not taken a Spanish class since high school, he was proficient enough to help the construction team in the build brigade.

Diana Ruiz, senior in LAS, also translated for the doctor because she is a native Spanish speaker. Though the group is mainly geared toward students wanting to enter the medical field, Ruiz said the trip was still a great experience for those not in the pre-medical route. Ruiz said the most rewarding part of the trip was the gratitude the patients showed them after they were taken care of by the doctors and students. Ruiz said she hopes to go again this summer if she is able to raise the funds.

The main task the construction crew tackled while in Honduras was to help build stoves that had a contained flame and a smokestack for residents, Lotz said. Many of the respiratory problems U.S. doctors were diagnosing were caused by a lack of ventilation in the small one-room homes the residents lived in. The new stoves would help crate better air flow and would alleviate the respiratory problems.

“Actually going there and seeing … the type of living environment that most of the world is living in, and helping them in a hands-on way was really rewarding,” Lotz said.