Int't students in transition

The Freshman Year in Florence Program was designed to help international students adjust to American college life — but in interviews many program participants said that while they enjoyed their time abroad, the experience barely prepared them for life at NYU.

"It was a phenomenal program, [but] not good for the adjustment to NYU," said Angela Mees, a CAS junior from Munich, Germany.

The overall purpose of the program — which is part of the General Studies Program — is to help international students get accustomed to the American style of college education so that their transition to NYU is easier, GSP Associate Dean Fred Schwarzbach said.

There are usually about 100 students in the program each year, he said. All students are housed in two villas on NYU's La Pietra campus in the northern hills of Florence. To get to class everyday, students need only make the five-minute walk through a valley of olive trees to another villa that houses classrooms. As with freshmen in New York, a meal plan is required and the students tend to eat their Italian-style dinner together at the villa's cafeteria. This proximity between students makes it easier for the students to meet and see each other more often, students said.

"People would get together all the time. - It was guaranteed that you would see someone at dinner in the dining hall," said Ronald Kwok, an SCPS senior from Hong Kong.

As with the GSP program in New York, class sizes are limited to 15 to 20 students, allowing students to get to know their classmates and professors better, said Debbie Zwi, a CAS junior from Brazil.

"We were in this wonderland," Zwi said. "Most of us wish we could have prolonged our experience."

The program is tailored to keep students busy and in constant interaction with each other. From mandatory overnight trips to nearby cities to campus movie nights and open mics, the group of 100 quickly becomes close-knit, students said.

But on arriving in New York, most students realize that their college lives have fundamentally changed.

"Some people have difficulty adapting to the tremendous change," said Elliot Carvalho, a CAS senior from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Several of his classmates transferred out after encountering the different lifestyle, stricter academics and uninviting social atmosphere of NYU in New York. Patricia Lui, a CAS junior from Toronto, said, "You're starting over again. I couldn't get used to it - not at all."

Even after being in New York for more than a year, Zwi said she and her peers still rely on the friends they made in Florence.

Although the program was designed to acclimate students to American college life, students said Florence didn't reflect life at NYU.

"It wasn't the American experience," Zwi said. "We shaped what happened there," Zwi said.

Since students came from all over the world, the environment was more international than American, she said.

After becoming accustomed to such an intimate environment, students don't know where they fit in at NYU when they arrive in New York.

"I felt like I was dropped into cold water," Mees said. She said the university offered her little assistance in the transition to sophomore year.

Mees said programs and activities similar to the freshman Welcome Week would help Florence students make new friends and explore the city.

GSP administrators have already started to address the problem, Schwarzbach said. This semester, NYU began an orientation program for students from the Florence program during the second half of Welcome Week and hosted activities to help them meet new people and explore the city, he said.

"We're aware that we need to do more," Schwarzbach said.

NYU is also planning a spring orientation for students still in Florence to provide them with information about NYU and New York before they arrive, he said.

Students said NYU is taking a step in the right direction by creating these programs.

Carvalho added that NYU in New York could learn a lot from the way the Florence program was run.

"If NYU in New York could make the experience more like Florence, I think people would benefit," he said. "I miss the Florence experience a lot."

— Additional reporting by Bradley Hope