During the spring and summer of 2025, SC&I Journalism and Media Studies majors and other Rutgers undergraduate students will have the exciting opportunity to travel abroad and gain invaluable skills working as foreign correspondents in the ancient cosmopolitan city of Istanbul, or as travel writers covering Bologna. Located in the heart of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, Bologna is the home of the oldest university in Europe and the popular dish Ragù Alla Bolognese.
Through the SC&I Journalism and Media Studies Study Abroad Program, two Journalism and Media Studies faculty members, Associate Professor of Professional Practice Mary D’Ambrosio and Professor Regina Marchiwill travel with their students to Turkey in March and Italy in June, respectively.
To inform SC&I and other Rutgers undergraduate students about these trips and classes, D’Ambrosio and Marchi hosted a mixer during the evening of October 23 in SC&I room 323.
At the mixer, students learned that while these two programs are primarily designed for students working to fulfill the JMS Global Media Specialization requirements, the trips are open to any Rutgers undergraduates interested in developing professional writing portfolios.
The trips will be a perfect fit for students who are curious about the world, willing to take a chance on something new, and want to learn how to report on foreign cultures, D’Ambrosio and Marchi said.
The trips will be a perfect fit for students who are curious about the world, willing to take a chance on something new, and want to learn how to report on foreign cultures, D’Ambrosio and Marchi said.
“You have to have a bit of an adventurous spirit and have a bit of an independent streak to be able to go off to another country and travel and study,” Marchi said.
For students aiming to land careers as travel writers or foreign correspondents, D’Ambrosio and Marchi said that studying abroad can set them apart from other applicants when applying for jobs.
“There are literally thousands of graduates every year looking for the same jobs,” Marchi said. “If you are an applicant who has done study abroad, and published a story, or a couple of stories on a news website, it really stands out to hiring managers who are reviewing hundreds of resumes. These experiences will show hiring managers that these students are independent thinkers, they're adventurous, they're strong, and they're courageous.”
Istanbul, Turkey
For the first time in spring 2025, Professor D’Ambrosio will teach the course Writing the Mediterranean: Turkey. The 4-credit class will be held at SC&I and will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-3:20 pm. During spring break, the class will travel to Istanbul for nine days to work on a “Reporting the Global City” project.
While in Istanbul, the students will report on the rapid urban expansion and gentrification, youth culture, and they will document life in an old Jewish and Armenian neighborhood. The students will also be given many opportunities to explore the culinary and artistic heritage in the city.
Mornings will consist of classes and trips, including a visit to a local neighborhood where the students will interview residents (while speaking English), and a trip up the Bosporus Strait with a local historian to learn about and report on the development of the shores and villages along the way. Afternoons will generally be left open to enable students to study, work on their assignments, or explore the city further, D’Ambrosio said.
Bologna, Italy
At the mixer, Professor Regina Marchi spoke about the two-week program in Bologna, Italy where students will take her class 
Travel Writing. In Bologna, students will receive three credits for the course and will gain experience working as travel writers exploring the Italian language and culture.
Marchi said the students will begin each day with a Basic Italian course to learn social cues to navigate Bologna. Then, they will attend the Travel Writing lecture and be assigned reporting groups, heading out on assignment in the afternoons with their interpreters.
“Students are free every night and they can have dinner where they want to,” Marchi said. “We do have activities in the evenings, but they're not obligatory. If we're going to an opera or a concert and someone doesn't want to come, they don't have to come. The very first weekend we do group things there, but the second weekend that we're there, students will be completely free for that entire three-day weekend to travel independently within Italy if they'd like to. Students do have a lot of freedom to decide what they want to have for lunch, w/here they want to have dinner, where they want to go, so the program offers a good balance of structure and freedom.”
D’Ambrosio, who originally conceived of and launched the SC&I study abroad program in Italy, and has also taught the class in Bologna, added that in past years, students have taken advantage of their free weekends to travel to Florence, Rome, Venice, Milan, Lake Como, and the Amalfi Coast.
The deadline to apply for the Turkey course is December 1, 2024, while the deadline for Global Journalism in Italy is February 1, 2025, and March 1, 2025, if there are still places available. Bologna applicants are encouraged to also submit their applications by Dec. 1, 2024, for priority consideration, since the limited number of spaces fill up quickly. Learn more here. Apply at Rutgers Global.
Learn more about the Journalism and Media Studies major at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.
Images, top to bottom: Students and faculty enjoying lasagna on the last night of the summer 2024 Bologna study abroad program (photo courtesy of Mary D'Ambrosio); Istanbul, Turkey (Pexels); Classroom at San Domenico (photo credit: Julia Friedman JMS'24).
