Above: The Paestum ruins in Southern Italy. Photo by Haley Kaye '24.

 

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If you ever find yourself in Rome, particularly in Piazza Venezia when it’s not too crowded, you can ride the 44 bus to Monteverde and find your way to the pink church on the corner. Next to it you’ll find the Centro. This was my route to my home away from home while I studied abroad in Rome, the “Eternal City." From my very first days as a UMass student, I always knew I wanted to study in Italy, and in spring 2023, I was able to make that dream a reality. 

I chose to study with the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies (known as “the Centro”) in Rome, a program focused on the history of Ancient Rome and investigating how the city grew from a marshy hut village into one of the greatest historical powers ever known. As a classics student with a double major in comparative literature, I study the histories of ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Because I specialize in Roman history, the Centro provided a chance to leave the classroom and study my source material through first-hand experience. Everyone has heard something about Ancient Rome, whether from TV shows, movies, books, classes, or even music, but a lot of what is considered “general knowledge” is often misconstrued. For me, studying in Rome was my way of gleaning fact from fiction and a chance to dive deeper into the workings of Roman history.

My previous semesters in classics at UMass set me up with historical background, context, and the ability to learn even more about the city than I imagined. In Rome, I was able to stand inside the images in my textbooks. I could reach out and touch the diagrams I’d seen on a professor’s slides. I was able to visit multiple monuments and areas I had written essays and discussions on, which in turn enabled me to make connections between the things I had researched at UMass and the things I was looking at in real time. Details of ancient temples, frescoes inside millennia-old houses, and the architecture of Rome all came alive in front of me whereas before they had only been words and images on paper. 

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But what shocked me the most was not the interconnectedness of my studies at home and abroad, but of my professors! The UMass classics department is full of professors active in the international community. Many work on archaeological sites when they aren’t teaching, write groundbreaking academic papers within the community, and have more likely than not been involved in leading or teaching study abroad programs. One of my four professors at the Centro attended UMass as an undergraduate student and was still in touch with many professors I took classes with recently. Others knew names of UMass professors when I spoke about them. Like my small hometown where you can’t go to the grocery store without seeing a friendly face, a lot of academics in the field of classics seem to know at least one UMass professor, if not by face then certainly by name. 

Without the guidance of Kimberly Gilmore, a UMass Latin instructor and graduate alumna in the classics department, I never would have known the Centro existed. As a former alum of the program, Gilmore was able to send me all the information I needed to apply. She helped me understand the importance of studying abroad and how it would change the course of my academic career, if not my life. 

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While abroad, I met new best friends and was able to explore one of the greatest, coolest places in the world with them. We experienced everything together from the grandest monuments to the most mundane things like waiting in the morning rain for our bus. For me—and for so many others—studying abroad is not just a way to enhance your education, but a way to get out into the world and explore. It’s a way to get out of your comfort zone, to learn how to rely on yourself, to meet new friends, and to see things you never would have seen otherwise. You come away with endless stories, photos, memories, knowledge, and, most importantly, a new perspective of the world we share. Find out more about how you can study abroad at UMass Amherst—it’s time to go!

 

 

This story was originally published in July 2023.