Courses
Throughout my time in Sorrento, I have learned much about the surrounding areas as well as the European Union as a whole. The two courses I have taken, Competing in a Global Environment and Perspectives on the Bay of Naples, have given me valuable knowledge and skills regarding international studies and cultural competence.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Competing in a Global Environment
In this course, the learning focused on business practices in the European Union. Each week we had a project to complete and present the following week. The first week of class, we learned about the “flipped classroom”, which is an approach that overturns the traditional learning cycle where teachers lecture, individuals study at home and there are classroom tests. Instead, we had to learn the topic on our own and present it to the class. Our assignment was to research the European Union and create a presentation.
The theme for our second week was “Think like an entrepreneur”, in which we had to create an innovative start-up business to be located in the European Union. Using what we had researched about the European Union the prior week, we were able to make a more educated decision on what the consumers need. My group created a company that sells sunglasses that also function as goggles based in Italy; Italy has many beaches and very few pairs of stylish goggles! After presenting our idea, we also had to think of how our businesses could be more sustainable.
Week 3 consisted of “Action Learning”, where groups look at issues centered around the use of questions, reflection and taking action. In groups, we had to work to promote a set of solutions related to environmental sustainability in the EU. After researching several environmental issues in the EU and what the EU has done to deal with these issues, my group discussed action steps to help marine ecosystems and decrease pollution on beaches.
Lastly, “Design Thinking” was our last major topic; this is a process that involves a five-step design consisting of empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. This process opens up a new way of thinking and offers several hands-on methods to help apply the new mindset. In groups, we worked as consulting teams for companies operating in the European Union. We were tasted with outlining a “People Management Strategy” that would help the company thrive in the post-COVID era.
This class has taught me a lot about the European Union and business within it, as well as working on a team with people I have just met. It definitely was difficult at first to work with strangers, but we came up with strategies to create successful presentations and get to know each other at the same time!
Perspectives on the Bay of Naples
In this course, we learned about the history and lifestyle in the surrounding area – the Bay of Naples. This included guest lectures, field trips and a cumulative final project.
The lectures each class period ranged in topics, from marine ecosystems and conservation to sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome. We begun learning about Naples, or Neapolis, which means new city in ancient Greek. Most of Naples is underground and it used to be like a Paris during ancient times. We took a field trip to Naples and got to learn even more about the area as well.
We also learned about human impacts on marine ecosystems, which was especially interesting because we are living in a coastal touristic area. The main impacts are overfishing, climate change, bioinvasion and pollution. We were able to see examples of these human impacts through unsustainable tourism along the Amalfi coast – the water was packed with boats and people and the beaches had good amounts of litter.
Artistic styles were very interesting to learn about as well because we saw many examples in churches and cathedrals in Sorrento and Naples. We also saw a lot of relics; in Naples, there was much ex voto dedicated to St. Giuseppe who was a doctor that was named a saint. Physical touch of these relics is said to transmit healing powers.
Olga Stinga, who works at Sant’Anna, taught us about sacred traditions in the Sorrento Peninsula. We got to see some of her teachings in action by Marina Grande during the festival of Sant’Anna!
We visited Paestum, Herculaneum, and Oplontis for field trips; these consisted of Greek temples, Roman ruins, a war cemetary and ancient towns that survived the Vesuvius eruption. We also learned some of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome, including sexuality, slavery and prostitution.
Lastly, we learned a bit about the business side of things, including the Camorra and Wastes and family firms in the Italian context. We watched and discussed the movie Gomorrah – specifically how waste disposal affects surrounding communities and how this business is so complex. With family firms, we learned how family politics and generational differences can severely impact the business itself.
Aside from lectures and field trips, our class was divided into groups to work on topics in order to create a Sorrento tour guide website. My group was Traditions and we focused on Cameo making, Sandal Making, traditional dances and wood intarsia. We created several blogs and did a presentation and walking tour for our class. I really enjoyed learning about the history of the area and the walking tour at the end of the class was very cool as well.
