How the world has changed in just six months! And yet, it hasn’t. In international education, our work has always assumed a complex world, recognized the importance of scholarship, valued multiple viewpoints, and built itself upon thoughtful understanding of identities, histories, and cultures. On your campuses and in Accent Study Centers, these assumptions guide student learning and advance global thinking. Never have they been more important.

We are Accent Global Learning. Since 1991, we have been a behind-the-scenes force working with colleges, universities, and university systems to achieve their missions more effectively and economically through the thoughtful, strategic use of global education. Our partnerships build upon a deep understanding of institutional objectives, and the university-branded programs we develop together seek to engage your students, faculty, and leadership in global learning through international education.

I welcome you to explore our new website. You will find a new look, but we are confident that you will recognize the same values, relationships, and care that have characterized our work from the beginning.

We look forward to meeting with many of you in the coming months to discuss our partnership and explore ways in which Accent can support your office and help your institution achieve its global learning goals.

~ Stephen Conger, Executive Director

The post What is Our Vision for the Future appeared first on Accent Global Learning.

Paris is a city that always has people strolling around, taking their time on terrasses, or by the River Seine, chilling in the numerous parks, visiting its monuments, shopping, or eating at restaurants.

But right now, it is silent. This has never happened since the dawn of our beloved city.

However, we inhabitants of Paris— of France— we are still here!

We make it heard every day at 8 PM: we come to our windows and cheer for our nurses, doctors, sanitation teams, grocery workers, and everyone still working to bring food and essentials to those in need. We clap, we yell, we play music to show our support for these everyday heroes.

We break the silence for a few minutes every day to say thank you to those that continue to fight for us.

This is a daily moment for us to remember that we are part of a city— of a country— that is showing its true strength by overcoming this unbelievable situation together.

~Audrey Casabielhe, Accent Paris

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As Italy enters its third week of lockdown, balconies and windows have flourished with a multitude of Italian flags and banners made by children bearing what has become the motto of this quarantine: “andrà tutto bene” – everything will be all right.

Although Spring has arrived, bringing the bluest skies and trees in full bloom, Rome is strangely quiet. The silence is only interrupted every night at 6 PM for musical flash mobs. It all started with the National Anthem, but night after night, we are now listening to the entire Italian musical repertoire from balconies, windows, and rooftops. This is just one of the initiatives fueled by social media. There are actors reading novels on Facebook, fundraising campaigns for hospitals, cooking tutorials, and fitness videos. Even museums have opened their virtual doors to the public and the highly anticipated exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance painter, Raffaello, can be visited online.  A number of funny jokes and memes where Italians make fun of themselves and laugh about the surreal situation we are in are going viral.

Surely what this lockdown has brought is a new sense of community and pride for our country, for the strength of our doctors and nurses, and our public health system. We have rediscovered the humor, strength, and resilience of this nation. It is hard being inside all day, not going out and meeting others – after all, Italians are probably some of the most extroverted and sociable people in the world – but all these initiatives are a great source of hope for everyone. On these sunny spring days, when we feel anxious or sad, we just need to look out the window to see that everything will be all right – andrà tutto bene.

~Alice Mangia, Accent Rome

While writing this post, Alice reached out to the Accent team in Rome, asking them for photos of what they saw outside their windows. Below is a collage she put together of all the pieces she received.

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As part of our study abroad in London, we visited Bath. I had first heard about the city through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It was only a short train ride away and a great site for a day trip. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its natural assets—the hills and hot springs—and its cultural significance.

Throughout the day, we observed Bath’s beautiful architecture. All the buildings in the city are constructed from ‘bath stone’, a gorgeous pale-yellow limestone. It practically glows in the sunlight and exemplifies the architectural style of Bath. We visited the Bath Circus and Royal Crescent, extravagant areas displaying the quality of British design.

For the second half of the day, we toured the Roman baths. The museum was excellent, and our tour guide walked us through the archaeology and history of the area. There is a lot to be understood about how past societies lived, and what they believed about culture and religion. The hot springs we walked around were considered sacred sites for over two millennia, and various structures honoring that significance had been built, fallen, and rebuilt in this exact spot.

Personally, I really enjoyed the scenery surrounding Bath. From the gardens, you can see how the city and the greenery that surrounds the region have expanded along the hills. It’s gorgeous, and completely worth a day trip.

Did Ethan’s post inspire you to explore England’s rich history? Research your study abroad options with Accent!

The post Accent London: A Day Trip to Bath appeared first on Accent Global Learning.

Hey, y’all. Benvenuto to my blog!

My name is Christiana Leonardo. I studied abroad in Italy during high school, where I was able to learn a bit of the language. I made a vow then that I would one day study in Florence after seeing what a fun student city it seemed to be. Three years later, my Italian is super rusty, but I am stoked to refine it over the next 89 days!

I have just begun the Spring study abroad program for Art History and Italian Language through Santa Barbara City College and Accent Global. SBCC Study Abroad typically offers one destination per semester, and this Spring was my last at SBCC, so I had been planning on studying abroad wherever that might’ve been. I have always felt that it’s not where you go, it’s what you make of it. I was hoping for a non-English speaking country because I love to learn other languages; I would have been happy to go to Japan or Chile or India. But I was so happy to learn the program would be in Firenze, returning me to the country I had previously called home, and to a city my 17-year-old self would be hyped about.

I arrived a few days before the rest of the students in my program, hoping to get to know the city a bit. To my disappointment, I slept for the majority of those two days due to jet lag but, blessed with navigational intelligence and the compact layout of Florence, I have already come to know the city like the back of my hand. Florence is, by far, my favorite city in Italy: it is the birthplace of the Italian language, home of some of the best art museums on the planet, stunning architecture, and the best tiramisù that I have found (please send your nonnas’ recipes). Florence carries an energy with it that is a bit younger, due to the large influx of students studying abroad.

It’s funny noticing similarities between my home I’ve just left, Isla Vista, the college town of Santa Barbara, and my new home, Florence. Both take about 20 minutes to walk across, there’s an abundance of students, very cool street art, and everyone walks in the street. I was feeling a bit homesick the day I arrived, and it is, once again, a bit challenging being away from my family and friends, but there are so many things to do here that I can’t do at home. I am hoping to do a lot of traveling to surrounding countries and, as corny as it sounds, carpe every limited diem I have in this Italian heaven!

Accent finds us apartments around the city, and mine is a beautiful 23-minute walk from the Accent Study Center in Piazza Santo Spirito. I walk across the Ponte Vecchio to get to class. So far, all of my professors are great. I had my first Italian quiz today in our fun-filled class and think I will be just about fluent when I leave. This morning, for my Art History lecture, we met at the Uffizi gallery, and saw the works of Botticelli, Giotto, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. I am super stoked to see the real art around Florence each week. The feeling of seeing the physical art that you are knowledgeable about is one like no other, and I crave it.

Having almost every class together, the 26 students on the program have already spent a lot of time together, sharing pizza and mutual feelings of jetlag. I did not know anyone in the program very well before arriving, though there are lots of familiar faces from SBCC! My Florentine apartment is shared between six lovely girls and we are nestled right next to a daily outdoor farmers market— high quality and dirt cheap, might I add. There is already some really great community building amongst all the students. Florence feels quite safe, but it’s nice having people that look out for each other. There have already been weekend trips with new friends from the program, and I am really feeling the family dynamic amongst our tightly knit crew. 

I am excited to be updating y’all on my experience here in Florence and am looking forward to my next post, in which I’ll probably be gushing over the architecture and all the gnocchi I will be shoving into my face every day. In the meantime, your Italian word of the month is “boh”, (pronounced like “bow” but with a short, harsh cut off the vowel at the end) meaning “I don’t know.” It is my favorite Italian word and one I wish we had in English! Ciao ciao for now, until next time!

~Christiana Leonardo, Santa Barbara City College

Accent is proud to support the Community College Scholarship as part of our commitment pledge to IIE Generation Study Abroad, a nationwide effort to help more U.S. students gain international experience through study abroad programs.

Studying abroad is an amazing way to expand your horizons and experience growth. Explore your options with Accent to take your first step into a new and exciting journey!

The post Accent Community College Scholarship: First Impressions in Firenze appeared first on Accent Global Learning.

Ciao! As I start my third week in Florence, Italy, I cannot express how much happiness these last few weeks have brought into my life. Florence has surpassed every expectation I had, and the Accent staff have really made my time abroad so much easier. I am truly lucky to be able to see the beauty of the city in every little corner and in every street. The amount of history that every building contains is unbelievable. Every morning, my classmates and I walk by the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore to go to class, and its captivating beauty is something I admire more and more every time I walk by it. The Cathedral has become our point of reference as we walk through the Florentine streets: all we need is to take a peek and find the Cathedral’s dome or the Giotto’s bell tower, the tallest building and the city’s most famous landmark, and we are all set to find our way home or to keep exploring the city.

My favorite part of my daily routine is crossing the Arno River on one of its many bridges (often taking the most famous and everyone’s favorite: Ponte Vecchio). Before coming to Florence, I never imagined I would be walking past such beautiful scenery every morning to go to class. It is definitely something worth taking a minute to contemplate and share with my family via text message every day. Taking photos of everything that appears in front of me has become my favorite hobby.

As a first-generation college student who is away from my family for the first time, I thought I would feel overwhelmed and a little sad living abroad, but the never-ending, striking views always brighten my day and bring so much excitement and hunger for adventure, that it eases my time away from my family. I am very lucky to be here and to be surrounded by such wonderful people. Every day, I try to practice my Italian with locals at restaurants or supermarkets, and it has been very rewarding, as I have already established a connection with them, and they always make me feel welcomed and part of the community.

The amount of joy I’ve had in such a short time is unimaginable, and I can’t wait to see what the next couple of months have to offer!

~ Valeria Orellana Canales, Santa Barbara City College

Accent is proud to support the Community College Scholarship as part of our commitment pledge to IIE Generation Study Abroad, a nationwide effort to help more U.S. students gain international experience through study abroad programs.

Studying abroad is an amazing way to expand your horizons and experience growth. Explore your options with Accent to take your first step into a new and exciting journey!

The post Accent Community College Scholarship: The Beauty of Florence appeared first on Accent Global Learning.

Many Italian cities have nicknames that symbolize the history of the city, or describe the city itself. For example, Rome is known as the Eternal City, and Venice as La Serenissima. Bologna has not just one, but three nicknames: la dotta, la grassa, la rossa (the erudite, the fat, the red) and these offer an explanation as to why the city is the perfect weekend getaway, as a group of USC students discovered last weekend.

The first nickname “la dotta,” the erudite, comes from the fact that Bologna is home to the first university in the world, founded in 1088. To this day, students from all over the world still come to study here and crowd the porticos that characterize the city. The Alma Mater Studiorum University is well worth a visit, especially the library and the teatro anatomico – the lecture halls where medical studies took place in ancient times.

The second nickname “la grassa,” the fat one, requires little explanation. Bologna offers a rich and varied cuisine. Food staples include tortellini, mortadella, parmigiano cheese, and balsamic vinegar. On a recent program, students hopped on a bus in Bologna and visited the Parmigiano producer ‘Consorzio Produttori Latte’, to learn how parmigiano cheese is made. Every morning at 5am, gallons of milk are delivered to the Consorzio’s facilities, where the transformation then begins with cheese wheels immersed in salty water. The whole process is quite long, but it’s well worth the wait: it takes at least a year to season a wheel of cheese. As it matures, Parmigiano Reggiano gains its well loved granular texture, and when cut into slivers, it becomes crumbly and delicious: perfect to top pasta with or as a snack by itself.

The second stop of the day was at ‘Tenuta Medici Ermete’, a balsamic vinegar producer. As with parmigiano, balsamic vinegar takes time and patience. The process begins by pressing grapes in huge vats. Less than 24 hours later, the grape must (grape juice) is sieved, and brought to a boil. Finally, it is left to cool, and poured into small barrels made of high-quality wood. The vinegar is then aged for a minimum of 12 years!

After the gastronomic tour, the students headed back to Bologna to try to discover the meaning behind the third nickname: “la rossa,” the red one. Some say it comes from the terracotta color of the buildings and roofs; others recall that the city’s political past, for years, oriented to the left, and to communism. Nowadays, nobody seems to question the meaning, it’s simply one of those Bologna secrets you have to discover yourself!

Did this post inspire you to study abroad and build your own unique experience in a new country? Explore your options with Accent to discover your next great adventure!

The post Accent Rome: Discovering the Secrets of Bologna appeared first on Accent Global Learning.

Professor Susann Allgaier challenges University of Minnesota students in her Drawing Studio to forget everything they know and question everything they see. In fact, central to their experience in the course is the concept of “learning to see,” a fundamental mindset in their efforts to analyze and construct visual ideas through the art of drawing. Considering line, value, texture, shape, and space, students use Florence as their classroom to develop drawing skills and, more importantly, reconsider visual experience in a way that impacts their education across academic disciplines.

One of the key on-site classes each semester in Florence is a visit to La Specola Natural History Museum, just steps from the Accent Florence Study Center at the foot of the Pitti Palace. The Museum was founded in 1775 to host the Medici Scientific Collection. Since its opening, the museum has been free and open to all. Today, the independent museum holds the world’s largest collection of 18th century anatomical waxes and has a collection of over 3.5 million preserved animals, of which five thousand are on display.

Each anatomical wax is carefully sculpted while referencing real corpses, both full bodies and sections. Wax models are displayed in series, each displaying a different layer of anatomy. The visit builds on the Renaissance idea of art and science being inseparably linked. Leonardo and Michelangelo extensively studied the dead and utilized dissection as a way to comprehend human physiology – the structure of muscle and bone and the shapes and components of the body were essential to their highly representative art styles.

Students started by observing and drawing the museum’s zoological collection before exploring the anatomical waxes through small group guided tours. Here, too, they “learned to see,” focusing on minute details and working on drawings that would become part of their semester portfolios.

The museum is not just for tourists and undergraduate art students; it is regularly referenced by local medical students and professionals. Earlier in the summer, a group of Neuroscience students from Michigan State University visited La Specola with Accent as well.

~Accent Florence

Accent networks span academia and industry, and include dynamic speakers genuinely invested in translating their expertise into unforgettable experiential learning opportunities for our students. If you’re faculty or a study abroad office and ready to collaborate on a new program, contact us.

The post An Excerpt from Insights: “Learning to See” at La Specola Natural History Museum appeared first on Accent Global Learning.

Accent London – Price Zhang, University of Southern California

https://www.instagram.com/p/B45NjwiF9rJ/

Accent Madrid – Lauren Solouki, UCLA

https://www.instagram.com/p/B42uVO_lMGF/

Accent Florence – Jack McKeon, UCLA

https://www.instagram.com/p/B42a17nleBb/

Accent Rome – Julianne, UCLA

https://www.instagram.com/p/B42JiyjFyqp/

Accent Paris – Nick Vaaler, University of Kansas

https://www.instagram.com/p/B44kBp0o4HR/

Accent is the number one provider of custom study abroad programs. We collaborate with you during the program design process to enrich your academic program with custom courses and creative academic enhancements, drawing on our wide networks to create a strong link between the program’s learning objectives and the host city. Our experience and in-depth local knowledge in each host city allow you access to the most engaging international experiences for the best value. Contact us today to discuss your new program.

The post Accent on Instagram: Fall 2019 in Review appeared first on Accent Global Learning.

Being abroad isn’t just going to school in a different country, it’s a challenge in many senses: to be ready to live and face new experiences every day, meet new people, and question almost everything. Once you decide to take this amazing journey of self-development, there will be no way back. This will surely affect your emotions, and that is why it is so important to take the time to think about them.

You’ll be in many situations where you will have no teacher ot her than yourself, where no one will tell you what to do or what anyone is expecting from you. You will be immersed in many different situations that will make you question your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. This doesn’t mean that you have to change them, not at all, just that they will be in constant flux. Some of these situations will be more pleasant or easier to understand than others, but all of them will have an important role in your experience. Try not to judge the emotions that arise, just be able to identify them, and have some tools for changing what you want to change.

Find people that respect you, that allow you to value yourself, and that encourage you to overcome your fears. Choose to be surrounded by those who let you be. It might sound weird, but trust me, it is not easy! Many times, we are who we have been told we have to be. Take this time to reaffirm and re-connect with who you are.

It is also very important that you keep some rituals from home that make you feel happy and present. It’s common to be unaware of the many pressures that you endure every day, since we don’t often take the time to be present. Meditation and mindfulness will allow you to be mentally present, to be conscious, and to feel. Writing is also a great tool to put your thoughts and emotions in order.Being abroad is also an organizational challenge. You’ll want to do more things than you would normally do back home, but in a shorter amount of time. Not only will you have the same amount of reading, exams, and group projects that you would have at your home university, but also weekly trips, daily gatherings with friends, visits to different events occurring in town, and spontaneous events. Participating in all of the above necessitates excellent planning skills if you want to have great academic performance and enjoy your time abroad.

One of the most common feelings while in a new city is that “time flies,” and that you do not have enough time to complete everything you need to do as well as everything you would like to do, so here are some tips:

–Set your priorities: Which tasks or activities are the most important for you? They should be your priority overall.
–Differentiate between what’s important and what’s urgent: Divide your tasks into the following categories: important and urgent; important, but not urgent; urgent but not important; neither important nor urgent. This will help you to outline, clarify and organize.
–Do not lose your main goal or objective: It will be your guide.
–Do not compare yourself to others: Keep in mind that we are all different, and that every experience is unique. Believe in yourself.

¡Buena suerte!

~Tania Rodríguez, Accent Madrid

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