After missing out on studying abroad as an undergraduate, Caley Pantalone, a 2017 advertising account management graduate, spent six weeks with Adult Study Abroad at Temple Rome in the fall of 2022, fully immersing herself in Italian culture, living with Roman citizens and travelling outside the city in her free time.
At the end of the programme, she decided she didn’t want to return to the United States with the rest of her cohort and took a leap of faith to continue her life abroad. She now works as a language assistant in Madrid, Spain, while pursuing a master’s degree in bilingual and multicultural education at the Universidad de Alcalá.
“This experience in the ASA programme helped me understand that such a leap was possible for me,” said Pantalone. “As scary as it is to just get on a plane and go to a foreign country without knowing many people, it is possible to put down roots where you land.”
Since 1966, Temple Rome, located across the Tiber River from Rome’s Prati neighbourhood, has served as a temporary home for thousands of Temple students who wanted to indulge in the cacio e pepe, Aperol spritzes and Renaissance art life abroad.
Now, ASA at Temple Rome, a six-week, non-credit programme, is opening the doors for adults who aren’t currently Temple students to experience a Roman study abroad adventure. Last year, the programme had three successful cohorts, more than it’s ever had in the past.
AJ Fitzgerald, an English professor and coordinator of academic success and career opportunities at ASA, had been thinking about creating the program since he started working at the university in 2018. ASA allows anyone to apply, but offers discounts to Temple alumni and parents of students.
“We’ve had very positive feedback,” Fitzgerald said. “Overall, I think the biggest compliment we’ve received is the fact that this group of alumni liked it so much that they wanted to come back a second time.”
In 2019, the university ran a successful pilot programme with an adult learning participant alongside undergraduates. The programme was due to be fully launched in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the debut until autumn 2021, when around 10 participants travelled to Rome.
ASA then expanded from 31 total participants for two cohorts in spring and autumn 2022 to nearly 45 for three cohorts in spring, summer and autumn 2023, with many previous participants returning for the 2023 sessions.
A participant’s schedule can be as extensive as they wish, with activities such as weekend and daily excursions, cooking classes and wine tastings as optional expenses.
Some participants even work their full-time jobs remotely while on the trip.
Steve DeCusatis, a 2002 graphic and interactive design alumnus and graphic designer, travelled abroad with his wife for seven weeks through the autumn 2022 programme while working remotely. The programme’s flexible schedule allowed him to visit family in the Salento region of Campania, Italy.
“It was super special to have enough time to feel comfortable in your environment, where you could just enjoy life as a local, you know, walking past the gelateria after dinner and getting some gelato or not, or just walking and seeing the things that are super special,” DeCusatis said.
During the autumn 2023 semester, participants were required to take Italian language and culture and highlights of Rome courses.
All cohorts experience on-site activities, such as visiting Roman museums and learning about the art and ruins they visit. Italian Language and Culture took students to market squares and Roman high schools to practise their language skills.
Norma Mori, a 1977 Counselling and Psychology graduate, retired school counsellor, and member of the Fall 2023 class, was drawn to ASA’s language learning component to improve her Italian.
“We were taken to a market and an ice-cream shop, and we were given some handouts and instructions on what kind of words would be useful in those situations as we practised speaking the language,” Mori said.
During an optional trip to the Bay of Naples, the autumn 2023 cohort visited places such as Sorrento and Pompeii, and some stayed in a monastery converted into a hotel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Students also had the opportunity to travel to cities such as Tivoli and Sabina while abroad.
During both the classroom and optional expeditions, members of the ASA cohort developed close friendships.
“We spent a lot of time together because we were doing these trips, excursions, classes and everything else, and it was a really nice experience,” Mori said. “We all found a way to get along and have fun together.”
The autumn 2023 participants even have a holiday lunch and reunion planned for the near future.
Since the programme’s inception, many alumni have called for other Temple campuses, such as Temple Japan, to replicate the programme, and other universities have even met with Temple Rome staff to inquire about how they can create adult study abroad experiences within their respective programmes, Fitzgerald said.
“I think ASA, if it becomes a bigger kind of industry, would just continue to benefit Temple because we have an established programme, so I don’t really see it as competition,” Fitzgerald said. “I see it as growing the pie, there’s so many destinations out there where other schools have a more established presence than Temple.”
