The center of Casa Internazionale delle Donne

I wanted to get involved when I was abroad in Rome to get acclimated to the community and make friends and found the volunteer experiences JCU Community Service offered a great way to do this. I am studying to become a teacher and work in the tutoring center at my home university, so I was intrigued by the English Conversation Skills at Casa Internazionale delle Donne.

Last day for some of our Italian Student group members.

For each session, we would pick a reading about news or culture and take turns going around our group of 5-12 students reading sections in English. I experienced a fast sense of community building at this activity because it was not only the English speakers like myself helping the Italian students, but the Italian students teaching us. They taught us different social sayings, traditions, and different activities and neighborhoods we should visit, helping us learn a lot about the new city of Rome that some of us study abroad students were in for the first time. I learned the exchange of languages at this session was not only beneficial to the Italian students, but I would learn a lot from discussing the differences in American family values versus Italian families, our different healthcare systems, prison systems, school systems, and Italian cultural values.

Our site leader explaining that days discussion topic.

In this activity I was able to develop my communication skills because often I would explain a phrase or pun to the Italian students and my first explanation was not clear. I had to adapt and learn which word level each student was on and cater the explanation to their understanding. This skill will help me a lot in the classroom when I have students of different comprehension levels during my lessons, but something I loved is that each time I would explain a new word or phrase the other Italian students would also help out and try to link it to something in their language to help their fellow student.

The whole crew together for a group photo at the end.

Volunteering was my favorite part of my study abroad experience. After going for a few weeks, I made friends with the other English speakers and we would all share discussions and jokes with our Italian students. I learned a lot about Italian culture because this was a safe spot for myself and the Italian students to ask each other questions about each other’s cultures and understand more of what’s going on in the everyday life of the other. I found that this activity brought me a sense of belonging and stability as I was acclimating to a new country and new way of life, and I am so very grateful for that.

Written by: Lillian, Fall 2024 Rome student from St. Mary’s College of California