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As spring break approached last year, Sasha Perugini knew that Syracuse University’s Florence program had to make a major decision: whether to suspend the study abroad program less than halfway through the semester. Not much alarmed Perugini, who had been the director of the program for 10 years. But news of the severity of COVID-19 cases in China did.

In late February 2020, SU Florence suspended its program, and students had only a few days to vacate Italy. It was painful, Perugini said, especially since it felt so unexpected. Senior Emmet Raichle, who was studying abroad in Florence at the time, said it felt like getting a “rug ripped out from under you.”

Now, over a year into the pandemic, Perugini has faced more decisions: how to run a study abroad program when most students aren’t abroad; how to safely run SU’s first in-person abroad program for the few who are traveling and how to navigate the long-term effects that COVID-19 will have on abroad programs.

“I think we’ll get to a point in which online will not be seen as a competition to the in-person teaching, but the two universes will join to really give the students the maximum flexibility and a really rich experience,” Perugini said.

SU Florence is Syracuse’s only abroad center that has welcomed back students in person, while other programs run completely online. This semester, six graduate students and 20 undergraduate architecture students are taking classes in Florence with SU.

Madeline Alves, a third-year architecture student, is studying abroad in Florence. Alves was hesitant about going in person at first but felt encouraged by SU Florence’s organized plans, she said on March 3, a week before departing for Florence. The program’s plans included COVID-19 testing before the flight, at the airport and once they landed, as well as housing at The Student Hotel, which is equipped with single rooms and individual bathrooms.

Days later, Alves and the other students arrived in Florence after several COVID-19 tests, a flight to Rome and a bus ride to Florence. They explored the city for the first time about two weeks ago, still jet-lagged after a full day of travel and orientation meetings.

When they saw the Duomo, Florence’s cathedral, they were in denial that they were really there, Alves said. Last Saturday, students went hiking to a point overlooking Florence and saw the buildings and hills in the distance.

“I couldn’t believe it. It was like a green screen for me, just because you can’t get anything like that (in the U.S.),” Alves said. “Especially surrounded by mountains and all the fresh air.”

All the while, classes are online while travel plans remain in flux. The students can’t leave Florence because the region is in an orange zone and will turn into a red zone on Monday until at least April 5, which puts travel restrictions on the area. Students can only leave their residences for necessities and must fill out and carry self-declaration forms, which state where they’re going.

(From left) Madeline Alves, Erin Zearfoss and Marco Pagliara arrived in Florence after several COVID-19 tests, a flight to Rome and a bus ride to Florence. Courtesy of Erin Zearfoss

Even so, Jenna Merry, another student on the trip, remains optimistic that students will eventually be able to visit other cities in the Tuscany region. It was a surprise to be able to go to Florence at all, Merry and Alves said.

The students have seen a “completely different take on the city,” Alves said. Alves knew the city would be empty but didn’t expect it to be this “vacant,” as large spaces lack tourists. She often hears in restaurants that the students are the first American customers in the area in a long time.

With only one center holding an in-person program this semester, many SU Abroad faculty and staff are currently furloughed, said Erika Wilkens, the assistant provost and executive director of SU Abroad. Plans are in place for programs this summer at the European centers and programs in the fall at all locations. The programs are expected to be in person with a comprehensive COVID-19 response plan.

But, for now, SU has adopted Abroad@Home, where faculty are teaching classes, which they previously taught in person, to students on SU’s campus and those studying remotely. The courses focus on topics such as Mediterranean food and culture, economics and environmental racism. The faculty come from several SU Abroad centers and bring a non-U.S. centered perspective to the online classes, said Perugini, who is teaching an online course on cross-cultural competence.

Students are taking Perugini’s course from locations such as China, Taiwan and Spain, along with Syracuse. The diversity in Perugini’s class makes it “the perfect team” for the course’s subject of cross-cultural competence, she said.

Online classes seem to have less of a smooth, natural flow than in-person classes, Perugini said. When Perugini taught the cross-cultural competence class in person, she would draw examples from the adjustment phase that students go through upon arrival in Florence. Now, teaching the course online to students in several locations, she couldn’t rely on these same examples.

“Teaching online is difficult,” Perugini said. “It’s difficult for students; it’s difficult for myself. It requires a lot of planning, and it requires a lot of patience, and it requires a lot of determination in pursuing the goals on both ends.”

While Perugini is grateful to have the opportunity to connect with students during a difficult time, she misses the closeness with students that comes from in-person classes. Other staff members feel the same way. Becca Farnum, the interim assistant director for outreach and engagement at SU London, misses the moments her students experience something for the first time.

She loves sharing “firsts” with them, like managing the London public transit system or visiting Lockerbie, Scotland. There, students tour the crash site where Pan Am Flight 103 exploded on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 270 people, including 35 SU students.

After an intense day of Remembrance activities, Farnum and students go on a hike and visit a nearby waterfall. One time, a student stopped at the bottom of the trail, staring and not moving. When Farnum approached the student to check in, the student replied in a “prayerful tone” that they had never seen a waterfall before. Farnum felt privileged to witness the student’s moment with nature.

But now, it’s impossible for her to replicate these experiences.

“There is literally nothing that’s ever going to compare or substitute or take the place of going to a theater with 1,000 people and watching Kenneth Branagh, right, or walking into a market and smelling the combination of Indian spices, Moroccan cooking styles and British palates,” she said.

Despite this, Farnum said online classes can still expose students to ideas and projects. For her “Climates of Resistance” class, she is hosting guest speakers from around the world and holding hands-on workshops related to repotting plants and cooking.

Another guest presentation featured Emma Robbins, an activist and artist who spoke about the Navajo Water Project, an Indigenous-led project that delivers clean water to people living on the Navajo Nation. After presenting and answering student’s questions, Robbins invited students to submit art for a World Water Day exhibit. The work of one of the students was selected for the showcase, and Farnum, Robbins and the student were able to connect despite being in three different locations.

“We don’t think that online learning is going away, but abroad learning is not going away either, right?” Farnum said. “And we’re just really excited to see how those come together and strengthen each other.”

Published on March 28, 2021 at 10:25 pm

Contact Mandy: ackrayna@syr.edu | @MandyKraynak