Graduate and international education is about discovery – the discovery of knowledge, the discovery of research and creative scholarship that improves lives, and the discovery of new lands, cultures and people. The Graduate School and International Education celebrates our students, faculty and staff who make discoveries happen at the U of A.
As a Fayetteville native, senior Eddie Chambers is no stranger to adventure. But he was ready to take it a step further and explore the world. With his love of travel, studying abroad was the opportunity he’d been looking for to expand his horizons.
Chambers heard about the Rome Centre from a friend who was studying abroad in 2021. After learning about the beautiful campus and the many academic opportunities available to him, Chambers decided to explore the possibility of studying at the Rome Center for a full semester.
“I chose the Rome Centre semester programme because I’d heard so many great things about it,” he said. “I decided that a semester would be just enough time abroad to really get a feel for what it’s like to live in Europe, and Rome in particular.”
Chambers, a supply chain management major in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, took courses toward a minor in global studies while abroad his junior year. He was able to take classes such as Intro to Global Studies, Global Changemakers, Women in Art & Architecture, and Intro to Marketing. The smaller class sizes encouraged active listening and participation, and the energy and excitement of his fellow students was infectious.
He also marvelled at the architecture of the classrooms.
“The space we were studying in made us feel like academics,” he said. “They were probably the coolest classrooms I’ve ever had the pleasure of studying in.”
Chambers also found that the Rome Centre’s courses were driven by applied learning opportunities, including a trip to a juvenile detention centre in Naples to study how Italy rehabilitates juveniles.
“We also visited a lot of cooperatives and public enterprises that were built on land confiscated from the Camorra,” he said, referring to an Italian mafia-like criminal organisation. “It was interesting to see how the Italian government was working to take back communities that had previously been extorted by criminal associations.”
Chambers embraced the opportunity to study abroad with open arms, travelling to a different city or country for 15 of the 17 weeks he was in Rome. Locations included Venice, Florence and Sicily, as well as countries other than Italy, such as Croatia, Germany and Spain.
One of his favourite memories of studying abroad was a university-sponsored spring break ski trip to the beautiful Dolomites in the Italian Alps. For the first four days of his spring break, Chambers and his fellow students took a train into the mountains and went skiing and snowboarding. He loved the ski town they visited because it was so close to Switzerland, resulting in an incredible mix of Swiss, Austrian and Italian culture.
“On our last night in the Dolomites, my roommate and I realised that the semester was exactly half over,” he said. “We sat on the balcony as it started to snow and talked about how unforgettable the experience had been and how quickly it had gone by.”
Chambers recently accepted an offer to work at Uber Freight, which he chose because of his interest in third-party logistics and the potential for unique opportunities for someone fresh out of the U of A.
“My study abroad experience helped me realise that I would like to work internationally at some point in my career. As supply chains continue to globalise, I’m sure there will be opportunities to do so, and my experience will help me.”
“If you are thinking about studying abroad and are on the fence, I would definitely recommend it,” he added. “There is something so fulfilling about trying something new or travelling somewhere new. You also have so many opportunities to learn about yourself. Studying abroad may seem like a daunting concept, and in some ways it is, but I wouldn’t trade the memories, knowledge and lifelong friends I’ve gained for anything.”
