Program Highlights
Italian Immersion Spring Semester
The full immersion program is offered every spring semester. The on-campus portion of the academic program includes Italian language classes and advanced classes in Italian literature, culture, and film.
Students live in an Italian-speaking residence hall with other program participants and native speakers or in home-stays in greater Lugano.
Students have the opportunity to enroll in humanities classes, taught in Italian with native Italian speakers, at the Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano, part of the local university system (USI), with whom Franklin has been collaborating for the last several years.
Students participate in a 10-day all Italian academic travel program in Italy (for a maximum of 15 students).
Students have the possibility of an Independent Study and private tutoring in Italian.
Students who need to complete coursework in a major outside of Italian are offered the possibility of enrolling in a single class in English in order to complete specific requirements.
Students would be invited to participate in an Italian distinguished lecturer series, featuring invited guests, Franklin professors and visiting professors from participating programs.
Interested students may participate in local community service projects, including the possibility of helping in elementary or middle school classrooms and after-school programs.
- At the completion of the semester, students will have the opportunity to participate in a three week field study in Italy to complete the immersion experience.
Common Features—Italian Immersion and Bilingual Italian Semester
Tutoring and Independent Study programs are offered in the fields of Italian language and literature; art history and history, history of political thought and international relations.
On-site research is part of both programs, to familiarize students with local archives and libraries. These include the Lugano Civic Library, the Giuseppe Prezzolini Archives and the USI libraries, as well as other institutions present in the Lombardy and Veneto regions that are easily accessible from Lugano—among them, the libraries of the Università dell'Insubria, Como, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana and the libraries of the Università Cattolica, Milan.
The Academic Travel to Italy will not just be a ten-day travel to discover or re-discover beautiful parts of Italy from an academic perspective and under the guidance of a travel leader, but rather a means to complete a multi-layered experience that starts on campus, to gradually embrace the local communities (specifically the Canton Ticino, Como and Milan). In this way, Italian-speaking Switzerland and Italy will become part of a linguistic and cultural experience whose borders are broadened by the student's own interests and motivation.
