{"id":4125,"date":"2007-02-01T14:39:54","date_gmt":"2007-02-01T18:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=4125"},"modified":"2014-11-14T16:03:31","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:03:31","slug":"students-learn-about-art-cultural-respect-and-the-serious-side-of-shopping-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2007\/02\/students-learn-about-art-cultural-respect-and-the-serious-side-of-shopping-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Students learn about art, cultural respect, and the serious side of shopping in Rome."},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"\"Study-abroad participants in the piazza in front of St. Peter\u2019s Cathedral in Rome<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Not asthma and not the flu could keep Rome study-abroad participant Carolina Garcia<\/strong> down. In fact, she was up\u2014to the very top of the dome of St. Peter\u2019s Cathedral.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the last day of my first study abroad, and I didn\u2019t want to miss this experience,\u201d said Garcia, an accounting major who works in the accounting office and the spa at Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort. \u201cWe took an elevator halfway and then climbed the remaining 220 narrow, twisting steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sight may have been the highpoint\u2014literally\u2014of a trip that took fifteen students\u2014under the guidance of Randall Martin<\/strong>, faculty director of the study-abroad programs and a member of the Department of Management and International Business in the College of Business Administration\u2014to Rome from December 27, 2006 through January 6, 2007. The trips are offered through the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).<\/p>\n

Martin always tries to secure accommodations in a convenient location, and this year\u2019s was ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"A view of the piazza of St. Peter\u2019s as seen from the dome of the cathedral<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cWe were just three blocks from the Vatican, so we couldn\u2019t get lost,\u201d said Kristina Hernandez<\/strong>, an international relations major and secretary in the modern languages department at Florida International University, also on her first study-abroad trip. \u201cWe saw the Sistine Ceiling, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Forum, and many paintings. Since I have taken art history courses, I was able to explain the significance of what we were seeing to my classmates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although touring plays an essential role in the programs\u2014this group saw not only Rome but also had a quick side trip to Florence\u2014the students also spent part of each day in coursework. In addition, the trips always include interaction with local businesses. This time, participants discovered how retail works in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"Students inside the Pantheon<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have large malls in Italy and have few chains, so we went up and down the streets to see the many small boutique shops and restaurants with their highly specialized stock, such as one with men\u2019s shirts only, another with fruits and vegetables, and another one with lasagna and salad,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThe interiors might be ten feet by six feet and feel crowded with four customers. But when you put a shop in 500-year-old surroundings, you don\u2019t need anything else to attract people, and the Italians have a long history of supporting small tradesmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even beyond the carefully planned educational aspects built into the study-abroad programs, the students always take away more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am eager to travel again,\u201d said Hernandez, who admitted to having a very hard adjustment on her first time away from her family. \u201cSome of us got very close, and since being back, we\u2019ve gone out together every night and may go on another trip together soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"Group members en route to the Coliseum<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cI came back with ten new friends,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI also came back with a big learning: in order to do business with people from other cultures, you have to respect their cultures. Business is global, so you have to communicate with people in a mixed group\u2014such as ours, in which we all had different beliefs and cultures. The same will be true in business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the costs brought on by higher fuel prices and the weakened dollar, the popularity of the study-abroad programs is growing. According to Martin, the trip to Paris, scheduled for March 16-25, 2007, and which can accommodate 25 students, filled up almost immediately when it was announced in January, 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Study-abroad participants in the piazza in front of St. Peter\u2019s Cathedral in Rome Not asthma and not the flu could keep Rome study-abroad participant Carolina Garcia down. In fact, she was up\u2014to the very top of the dome of St. Peter\u2019s Cathedral. \u201cIt was the last day of my first study abroad, and I didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[356,374,435,1522,2199],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24312,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions\/24312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}