Undergraduate Program

Summer School in Italy

Information applies to Summer 2010 program, based on the 2009 costs. When the university announces its new tuition rates, the totals may rise slightly for next summer; there are never surcharges to attend in Italy.

Join the Miami Summer School program in Florence, Italy—an all-majors workshop offering 8 or 9 credits.

Classes taught in English on three consecutive days with long weekends for independent European travel!
Several thematic sequence options available.
Students live in deluxe double or triple rooms, fully furnished, with refrigerator and bath.
Easy walking distance to train station.
Limited apartment option possible.
Parents welcome to visit!
Flights to and from Florence included, or arrange your own.
Informational meetings fall and spring.

Classrooms and accommodations:

Classes and apartments are at the Gould Institute in the heart of Florence, just 15 minutes from the train station. Apartments outside the Institute are also an option. Classes are taught in English by Miami faculty and local Italians. Basic knowledge of Italian is helpful, but not necessary.

Classes meet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for six weeks, leaving students free to experience Europe from Thursday afternoon until Monday night. Please be aware of the strict class attendance policy when scheduling weekend travel.

Three delicious and fresh dinners per week are included in the price; other meals are the student’s responsibility. The best and most genuine Italian food is just minutes from your door there. Rooms come with refrigerators and there is a microwave available, so those on a budget can eat quite thriftily.

Coursework:

Everyone takes both:

English 350C: The Art Film (3 credits)
Art 399: Art and Architecture of the Renaissance (2 or 3 credits)

Then choose one additional:

Journalism 350: Specialized Reporting in Journalism (3 credits)
English 251: European Literature (3 credits)

Costs:

$10,500-$11,500/Ohio Resident*
$12,500-$13,000/Non-Resident*

*Estimated TOTAL based on 2009 pricing includes tuition (8 credits), fees, flight, room/board, books, first weekend trip to Venice, and personals. For 9 credits add $500-$600. Prices are subject to change due to the constantly fluctuating exchange rate between the dollar and the euro. Note that your final figures largely depend how many long trips you take on your free weekends, and your personal levels of spending in general. Students are encouraged to budget wisely. Those who mix local travel with the longer options stay near the lower end of the estimated scales above. Most work for the first half of the summer since the program begins at the end of June.

Payment:

The following payments (checks made payable to Miami University) are made to program director Mark Bernheim:

$500 deposit, due in October; refundable until May, but please do not put down a deposit unless you are sure you will be able to go.
Payment for room/board/flights (currently estimated at $3,800) is due directly after spring break.

Please note that tuition is due at the Lifelong Learning office in McGuffey 127 by June 1.

Personal spending money for travel, meals (besides the three weekly dinners), and incidentals is INCLUDED IN THE ABOVE TOTAL.

Apply:

Download an application, complete it and return to Dr. Mark Bernheim at the address below.

For more information please contact:

Dr. Mark Bernheim
English Department, 321 Bachelor Hall
e-mail: bernhema@muohio.edu
office: 513-529-5260

We are listing several links for you to visit in order to view high-quality photos of some of the highpoints of Summer 2009. In the first week, Nick Verreos, a California design celebrity from “Project Runway,” was in residence with the program and met with the writing students for several days in a new emphasis we introduced on Fashion Communications. The photos show Nick and the students at one of the leading fashion schools in Florence, where they attended lectures and discussed innovations in writing and marketing. His blog gives some idea of the wonderful interaction with the group. Other photos are of the students on the long weekend trip to Venice before classes start (costs included).

The other major photographic link is a record of the Summer 2009 group Farewell Reception. On August 15, just before returning to the US, they spent the afternoon at an exclusive health and fitness Club in the Tuscan hills overlooking Florence. You will see them swimming and sunning and generally enjoying a well-deserved physical break from the many weeks of classes.
That night we had a private catered buffet reception under the moon and starlight. The vivid shots by well-known fashion photographer Jerry Ingram of “Foto-genique” in Florence give some idea of the exciting times and memories the students took back with them the next day and will have forever. It was an ideal way to end the program!

Budget permitting, we will repeat these wonderful times in Summer 2010, and even hope to expand our emphasis on Florence as a fashion and design center with more input from “Project Runway” and other designers and artists.

I hope you enjoy the Youtube and Flickr links!

*You are also invited to have a look at the site/blog created in Summer 2009 by the Journalism instructor, Annie Blair. Her students’ work is also included in the links so you can see what Ms. Blair and her family themselves experienced during the summer as well as the learning experiences of many students in the writing class.

Please note that students work intensively during the time in Italy. We have excellent classroom facilities, internet capabilities, and a fine old downtown movie theater which I rent for the film screenings. Our workshop functions rather like a mini-branch of the university during that time. You are in school.

And: The primary emphasis of the workshop is always academic. You go there to earn 8 or 9 important and useful Miami credits (including a Thematic Sequence option) which go directly into your academic record, and may even make it easier for you to graduate on time since these are credits you obviously do not have to take again during a fall or spring term.

You work very hard Tuesday-Thursday every week so that the other days are yours to experience being in Europe. What you do with that time is your decision. Many students plan every weekend going off on their own or with a friend or two anywhere else in Italy (costs less!), or on the European continent. Others take advantage of the experience of the program assistant Andre Partee who has worked with us for six summers advising on getting around. He will organize privately very popular excursions to Croatia, Munich, Barcelona, and elsewhere. Many students opt to do these. Note that they are not part in any way of the Florence Workshop and your experiences there are your own responsibility, in the same way as what you do in your free time in Oxford or Cincinnati is not part of your classroom life as a Miami student. The total cost figures listed above do attempt to include several of the trips and the associated costs within. But each person has her own experience each summer, and many find it a great way to mature and learn self-reliance and careful planning, with guidance offered.

Naturally the student blogs emphasize and illustrate mostly the free time fun! The trips and excursions aside from the being in the classroom are probably what they will find most exciting and memorable the rest of their lives. But please bear in mind you will come to Florence as part of an academic program that should be a vital part of your total study experience at Miami. For many people it has also opened doors to careers and destinations they follow in their own lives afterward.

That being said, have a look at the blogs and imagine yourselves enjoying a whole new world of Europe during the summer of 2010, seeing new cities and countries, making lifetime friendships based on sharing this special opportunity for study AND fun!

—Dr. Mark Bernheim

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