Study Abroad in Italy

Information Session: Wednesday, October 23 at 3:00-4:00pm, Pacific Time. RSVP to attend

Dates & Deadlines

• Program Travel Dates: March 27 - May 30, 2025
• Application & Deposit ($450) Deadline: Friday, January 31, 2025
  • NOTE: to participate in the Rome, Italy program, students must be 18 years old or older by the program start date.
• Early Bird Deadline: Apply by Thursday, November 21, 2024 & save $100!
• Balance of Program Fees Due: Friday, March 7, 2025
• Tuition Due: Check your campus’s calendar

Academic Program

This is an academic study program. Students are required to take 15 credits in the following courses.

Lead Faculty

Elizabeth Donley, Clark College

Elizabeth Donley has a long history with Italy, beginning as a student in an undergraduate exchange program in Florence, Italy where she studied Italian art, language, and literature. Since then, Elizabeth has returned to the country many times, teaching as the primary instructor for WCCCSA in Florence, Italy in 2013 and most recently, supporting her college-aged daughters on their own exchanges, travel, and work in Italy. She also hosted an Italian exchange student in her home in Portland, Oregon last year. Her travel in the country is extensive; she has explored from the north to the south of the country, including stays in Sicily and Sardinia. Traversing by plane, train, car, and ferry, she has seen many of the major sites and areas far less known.

She earned an MFA in creative writing and an MA in English (emphasis literature) from Chapman University and a BA in political science with a minor in Italian from DePaul University. She is a tenured professor of English at Clark College, where she teaches fiction writing, composition, and literature courses. She also co-directed the award-winning student art and literary journal, Phoenix, and taught a literary production class in tandem with the Art Department for several years. For the last 10 years, she has also held the position of English Division Chair, where she has helped reshape English course placement and the composition curriculum using an equity lense to help close achievement gaps and increase student success rates.

Outside the classroom, Elizabeth is a fiction writer whose work has appeared in a variety of publications and has been honored with an Oregon Literary Fellowship, a Caldera Residency, and an Elizabeth George Foundation. A former competitive gymnast and gymnastics coach, she is an avid sports fan who catches Chicago Cubs games every summer in her home city of Chicago. In the Pacific Northwest, some of her favorite activities include hiking, tending to her vegetable garden, and crafting creative culinary dishes. She also takes part in an Italian language meet-up group and loves to attend local cultural events, from dance performances to live theater, music, and author readings. Although her daughters are nearing adulthood and attending college across the country, she is forever a devoted mother who couldn’t be prouder of the children she raised.

Course Descriptions

Note: Course numbers will vary by home college. Check with your study abroad cordinator.

Italian Life and Culture Course (5 credits)

Taught by local qualified guest lecturers focusing on historical, political, economic, and cultural aspects of Rome and Italy. Local faculty will assign work and grades for the course.

This is an academic program and students are required to enroll in a full-time course load (15 credits). Failure to participate in the academic coursework may result in dismissal from the program. Students are encouraged to make the most of their classroom learning as it will enhance understanding of all the local area has to offer.

English &112: Intro to Fiction Writing (5 credits)

This literature class focuses on works of short fiction by Italian and mainly Roman writers. Moving chronologically starting in Ancient Rome, we will use Rome as a textbook. When we read the writer Ovid, for example, we’ll visit ancient sites like the Forum. As we move to the Renaissance, we’ll read Giorgio Vasari’s account of Michelangelo, diving into the exaggerations, the fiction, he constructed of the man who created the Sistine Chapel. We’ll do the same with Benvenuto Cellini’s writing, exploring his own account of when Rome was sacked by troops sent by Charles V, and he defended the city at Castel Sant’Angelo. In the 20th century, we’ll read short stories by Natalia Ginzberg, whose works were often an affront to Mussolini’s Italy. We’ll finish with the American-Indian writer, Jhumpa Lahiri, who now calls Rome her home and writes exclusively in the Italian language. All these works will allow us to explore Rome more in-depth, looking at its origins and then moving throughout history to contemporary times, where we see an international metropolis that still retains much of its historical past yet is trying to adapt to the many changes the 21st century has brought.

English &236: Creative Writing (5 credits)

Fiction writers have been visiting Italy for years for inspiration. Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Anthony Doerr are just a few, but the list is much longer than that. Using these expat writers as our guide, this class will focus on writing fiction with Rome (and Italy) as our inspiration. Conducted in a writing workshop format, students will write fiction, read published fiction, and critique the fiction of their peers. Students will use Rome to set at least one work of fiction, and writing exercises will take us onto the cobblestone streets of the city, so students can really capture the flavor and feel of this magical and historic city. We’ll also explore the concept of imitation and look at some famous work that have been shaped by stories already written (like the Roman mythology that was adapted from Greek mythology) and consider how best to use imitation in our own writing. At the end of the course, students will organize a reading of their work, choosing a place in Rome to hold the reading and working together to plan the event. For those who have already completed Creative Writing I, there will be an option to enroll in an Advanced Fiction Writing class with some additional requirements.