My name is Sophie, I’m a sophomore at Wesleyan, a freshly declared Italian Studies major, and a student employee for the Fries Center for Global Studies and the Office of Study Abroad. Over the spring semester I, along with my peers and coworkers, have been preparing for next fall abroad. My peers and I have been preparing for our semester at the University of Bologna, in northern Italy. With almost four semesters of Italian language and culture classes now under my belt, I’m eager to test myself, outside of the exam booklet.

We’ve all continued our preparations following the closing of campus last month. I work the advising hours for the OSA, now on Zoom instead of first floor Fisk. Our commons is now the waiting room which I oversee and delegated students to our advisors’ offices, aka breakout rooms. I’m very thankful for being able to maintain contact with my coworkers. It puts a lot of light and structure into my days. One thing that unfortunately can’t be recreated via Zoom is my desk chair in the FCGS commons which is much more comfortable than the one I’ve got at home.

My peers and I continue our preparations with classes and TA sessions, but now with more animal and parental guest stars in the backgrounds of our Zoom screens. We all stay in touch and keep alive our camaraderie, supporting each other regarding all things ITST. Perhaps most importantly, we continue to share with each other whatever funny Italian content we come across. Most recently, there was a video of an in-house, makeshift espresso bar for a couple feeling disconnected from their typical rituals.

Everyone from my Wesleyan community has done so much to stay in contact with one another. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for this, and for everything my community is doing to ease this crisis for those struggling. I’m looking forward to all my FCGS and ITST Zoom calls, and to the rest of my Wesleyan study abroad experiences which will follow.