7/20/04

LMC Offers Overseas Study Opportunity in Italy

BENTON TOWNSHIP, MI - Lake Michigan College is offering students and community members the opportunity to gain college credit during an eight-day travel study trip to Italy. Scheduled for June 8-16, 2005, the Bell'Italia trip will take participants to Milan, Verona, Venice, Florence, Assisi and Rome to visit many of the well-known architectural, cultural, artistic, and historical sites. Participants may also choose optional side trips to Siena, Pompeii and Bay of Naples.

Scheduled activities include guided sightseeing of Venice with a visit to Doges' Palace; guided sightseeing of Florence; and two days in Rome that will include an orientation tour, a guided excursion to Vatican City, and visits to the Colosseum and the ruins of the Forum Romanum.

"This is a new venture for Lake Michigan College as we look to give students and community members more access to internationalized curriculum," states LMC Humanities instructor and trip group leader Dr. K. Sundaram. "Not only does it give people first hand exposure to another culture but it allows them to personally connect with history and ideas that they might otherwise only encounter through text books."

The trip is open to all community members including high school juniors and seniors as a college course or simply as a non-credit experiential learning opportunity. Those looking to earn college credit can choose between the one-credit Aware of the Fine Arts or the three-credit Field Experience in Fine Arts courses.

If chosen as a credit course, regular LMC tuition and fees apply and are in addition to the trip fee of $1,840 for student age 24 and under and $2,120 for people age 25 and older. Optional excursion fees are $25 for Siena and $65 for Pompeii and Bay of Naples.

The trip is arranged and conducted through EF Educational Tours. Trip fees include travel expenses, program fees, departure tax, seven nights of hotel accommodations, all breakfasts and dinners, and admission to included museums and sites. Expenses not included are lunches, free time transportation, and travel to and from O'Hare Airport. Adults 25 and older are lodged two to a room. Students 24 and younger may be lodged three or four to a room.

For students to gain the most out of the experience, Sundaram encourages students to enroll in the Elementary Italian I course offered through the Self-Instructional Language Program at LMC this fall.

Those wanting more information about the trip or the Italian course should contact Sundaram at (269) 927-8100 ext. 5181, (800) 252-1562 ext. 5181, or (269) 983-2056. Trip information can also be found at www.eftours.com by entering tour number 247025. Participants will sign up for the trip via the Web site. If they wish to earn college credit for the trip, they must sign up and pay for the class through Lake Michigan College.