Learning Through Culture

Karsen Cardinal
Office of Learning Abroad
May 4, 2019-May 19, 2019

Project Summary
For my EDGE Project, I did a study abroad in Italy
with Southern Utah University’s psychology
department. The objective of this study abroad was to
use intercultural knowledge and competence to
increase my integrative learning as well as my social
and personal responsibility. In order to accomplish
these objectives, my class and I traveled to various
places in Italy such as the Roman Colosseum and the
Duomo of Milan, wherein we could learn about the
history of the Italian culture, causing Italy to be what
it is today. By completing this project, I was able to
learn how to travel internationally, use what I had
learned in the classroom to analyze the culture and This photo was taken in Venice, Italy, a city built around
architecture of Italy, socialize and speak to Italians, canals of water instead of paved roads. In Venice, in order
and gain a greater appreciation for the world we live to get from place to place, people have to ride in boats in
in. order to get through the canals. Venice is famous for it’s
gondola rides, that unfortunately, we were unable to
participate in due to the consistent down pour of rain in
Project Highlights Venice the day we visited.

• Seeing the Colosseum at night.

• Trying authentic Italian pizza in Naples.
• Hiking the Path of the God’s.
• Climbing to the top of the Duomo in
Florence.
• Spending a day in Venice, seeing the
beautiful canals within the city.
• Learning to speak enough Italian to get by.
• Traveling internationally on my own.
• Making new friendships with people I had
never met before this class as well as
building relationships with Professors.

From My Journal
“I am not being dramatic when I say if there was one This photo was taken while on my hike at the Path of the
God’s. This view overlooked the Mediterranean Sea. The
place I could go every day for the rest of my life, it
weather that day was rather foggy being that we were
would be the Path of the God’s. I couldn’t stop
located at such a high elevation. It felt as though we
smiling. Never in a million years would I ever had were walking through the clouds.
thought I would be there, in that moment, taking it in.
That, was serenity.”