Global Ambassador Alexa Marsh
Major: School of Public and International Affairs
College: Butler
International Experience: Brown in Bologna; SPIA Program at the University of Cape Town
Location: Bologna, Italy; Cape Town, South Africa
I’m a senior in the SPIA department pursuing a minor in Italian Language and Culture, and I studied abroad during my sophomore and junior spring semesters. My sophomore year, I participated in Brown in Bologna, a program designed to offer students an immersive experience in Italian language and culture. I had the opportunity to attend classes at the University of Bologna, considered the oldest university in the Western world, on art history from the Renaissance to the Baroque period and contemporary Italian literature. It was an incredible experience to take classes alongside native Italian students and navigate an entirely different academic system. Throughout the semester, the program organized events intended to encourage cultural engagement, including a night at the opera, a pasta-making class, and day trips to the nearby cities of Parma, Ravenna, and Modena. My semester in Bologna exposed me to the wonders and challenges of navigating a new city in a foreign language and completely transformed my relationship with the Italian language and culture. During my junior year, I studied abroad in Cape Town through SPIA’s Task Force Abroad Program. I took a range of classes on African history, economics, and politics, alongside the SPIA Task Force. As part of the Task Force, my peers and I had the chance to travel to Botswana to conduct fieldwork for our research report. My experience in Cape Town was unique from but equally as culturally, academically, and socially enriching as my semester in Bologna, and I encourage more SPIA students to take advantage of this incredible opportunity!
Student organization(s) I'm a part of at Princeton:
Vote100 Fellow, Writing Center Fellow, Ethics of Policy Fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination
Feel free to also ask me about:
Studying abroad as a sophomore, studying abroad two semesters, taking courses in your non-native language