Gina Garaventa '12

At first Gina Garaventa ’12 wanted to get away from Switzerland to study. She attended college in California, but soon realized she missed home, including family and the pristine natural surroundings in Switzerland. Being able to come back to Switzerland to be closer to her home canton of Schwyz while still attending an American liberal arts college was the perfect solution for Gina, and she transferred to Franklin College in the fall of 2009.

As an International Management with emphasis in Marketing major, Gina took a class last year with adjunct Professor Luca Triacca, who also has a business specializing in web communications. When she asked Professor Triacca about any summer internship possibilities in the area, he offered her work at his company, which serves clients like Lindt and Ferrero. “Franklin students bring an international perspective, reliability and a great enthusiasm,” says Professor Triacca.

As a small, start-up company, “it’s not a normal internship where you’re making copies and filing papers,” says Gina. Instead she is able to work hands-on with many different aspects of web communications like market research, copy writing for websites and integrating social media into traditional websites. She works at the company for two half-days a week along with her full course load and other activities. Working at the company is also helping her regain her Italian, which she spoke fluently as a child because of her Italian father, although English is used as a universal business language for much of the work.

In addition to her off-campus work experience, Gina wanted to participate in Franklin’s residential and campus life even though she realized she had to push herself to get involved because it was not part of her educational upbringing. She attended Zurich International School for high school where she started to learn about the full participatory experience of school that exists in the American model but not in the stricter, teacher-centered Swiss model, and she wanted to continue to become involved in class and school life.

“Gina is a rare person who is willing to do something completely different or foreign to her,” says Kyle Carpenter, Director of Student Leadership. “She is willing to put herself in situations where she might not be fully comfortable, but she is confident of being able to make the most of the experience.”

One of the ways, Gina got involved in Franklin life was to become an Orientation Leader in order to introduce first-year students to Franklin and make them feel welcome. She felt it was important to share Swiss culture with students including why it was different and how to respect the culture. She felt like she was able to do her part to broaden understanding of her country and share a local perspective on living in Switzerland. “It was a great experience,” says Gina. “I will definitely do it again.” “It was an opportunity for her to take pride in being Swiss,” says Kyle.

Another way she has gotten involved is through Lugano Street Dance, the student-led dance club on campus. Gina studies ballet, hip-hop, belly dancing and modern dance on her own and likes to get together with other students to have fun with different dance styles.

Living on campus is also a new experience that Swiss students at national universities don’t normally have that Gina feels lucky to be enjoying. Although she lived off-campus for the summer to experience life outside Franklin, she likes being on campus and close to all the classes and activities. Living in New Building A with three other friends from Franklin allows her to enjoy the full residential experience at the College.

Gina finds that Academic Travel is a good way to connect with students she might not otherwise know.  For her first Travel, she embarked on Professor Melvin Schlein’s “magical bus tour” of Geneva, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, which opened doors to institutions and organizations she would never have had the chance to see otherwise. Next was a cold, snowy trip to Greece and Turkey with Professor Robert McCormick, which was not “the Greece in travel ads” but still a great experience.

Gina plans to graduate early in December, 2011, in order to be able to have a six-month internship before attending graduate school. In the meantime, she is taking full advantage of her work, residential and academic experience at Franklin that she knows is “a great opportunity I won’t ever have again.”

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May 2011