Students React to the Devastation in Italy

By Emily Dalrymple

On April 6, a devastating earthquake hit central Italy, specifically the city of L’Aquila, 75 miles northeast of Rome, leaving thousands injured and homeless, and several dead. A university dormitory was among one of the many buildings collapsed.

According to Reuters, many of the victims were students at L’Aquila’s university. A fireman from the port of Pescara who came to help rescue efforts collapsed in tears after unearthing the body of his stepdaughter, a L’Aquila university student.

Relief workers dealing with the destruction. Image from talkingpointsmemo.com, courtesy of European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre

Alyssa Longobucco, a Marist sophomore currently studying in Florence, said that many parents were unsure of the devastation and were frantically trying to reach their children.

“It was terrible to hear that several students were killed in the earthquake,” said Longobucco. “What made it hit home more was how many people didn’t know exactly what happened in the US and called panicking about their children.”

“The haziness of the situation made a lot of people back at home panic.”

According to an article from BBC News, Luigi Alfonsi was residing in a collapsed dormitory.

“We managed to come down with other students but we had to sneak through a hole in the stairs as the whole floor came down,” student Luigi Alfonsi said.

“I was in bed – it was like it would never end as I heard pieces of the building collapse around me.”

According to redcross.org, the Italian Red Cross has set up mobile kitchens that can provide 10,000 meals a day run by a team of 46 staff and volunteers.

“I know there have been a couple of blood drives organized, but as far as anything else, I’m unsure,” said Longobucco about the efforts made by her school to help out in this crisis.

The day after the earthquake, Reuters reported that at least 235 people were killed. Authorities estimate that 17,000 people have lost their homes. Many people have been living in tents while rescue shelters have been constructed.

Alex Resnick, a Marist junior, has received little information about what is happening in L’Aquila. Students studying abroad in Italy are receiving about as much information as those of us in the United States.

“I know from various television channels and news sources that throughout the course of the recovery people were forced, and probably still are, to live in tents,” said Resnick. “Many people were found alive hidden in the rumble, but many people were also found to be dead.”

Students Travel to Mexico Despite Safety Fears

By Emily Dalrymple

The drug war in Mexico had caused many students to cancel their spring break plans in order to ensure their safety. But what happened to those who still had to make the trip because financially, canceling the trip would have been devastating?

Phil Vallone, a Marist senior, made the trip to Acapulco with several of his friends and housemates.

“We stayed at the hotel during the day and did not leave until later at night when we would take cabs straight to the clubs and come right back from there,” said Vallone. “Other than going out to the clubs, we did not leave the hotel property much.”

According to the New York Times, the impetus for the drug war began during the 2006 campaign of President Felipe Calderon. He received threats from drug cartels which fueled President Calderon to send the army into the streets to fight the drug cartels. Fighting has been heavy around the Mexico border, especially in the city of Ciudad Juarez.

Map of cities with high drug violence. Courtesy of washingtonpost.com

The Juarez cartel is battling with rivals from the northwestern state of Sinaloa for the control of smuggling routes into Texas. 5,000 troops were sent into Ciudad Juarez just last month, according to Reuters.

“I wasn’t too concerned because Acapulco isn’t a border city and that’s where most of the violence was,” said Vallone. “I felt pretty safe when traveling around the area.”

One of the top drug cartel leaders is shown here after his arrest. Courtesy of telegraph.co.uk

According to Reuters, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said that the death toll has dropped by 25 percent in the first three months of this year from the last quarter of 2008. 1,600 people have been killed thus far from January to March.

Many who traveled to Mexico over spring break made themselves aware of the possible danger before embarking on their trip.

“I watched a few news stories on the situation and read the government warnings as well before leaving,” said Vallone. “It was nothing like it was portrayed on the news.”

Nicolas Seraleyva: Marist Traveler

By: Michelle Morico

Is there such a thing as studying abroad too much? Definitely not, said Nicolas Seraleyva, a Marist junior who has studied abroad for five semesters.

Seraleyva in Cairo, Egypt.

Seraleyva is experiencing his first ever semester at Marist campus in Poughkeepsie, NY this spring. He spent his freshman and sophomore years in Florence, and the first semester of his junior year in London through the FIE program. Seraleyva is not done studying abroad though; next semester he will be in Bangkok before graduating in Florence in spring 2010.

Seraleyva is from Washington D.C. and has always been very interested in the arts including travel and fashion. Seraleyva is a graphic design major and has a blog primarily discussing fashion.

“I got the travel bug from my mom,” Seraleyva said. He’s always been into traveling because of his parents. As a child, Seraleyva went on many international trips with his mom partly because of her job at the International Monetary Fund.

“I wanted to see what it would be like here [in Poughkeepsie],” he said. “Plus spending 5 grand a semester-that needed to stop.”  Although Seraleyva misses the abroad lifestyle, he does not miss the hole he was burning in his pocket. The experience Seraleyva is having at Marist is a new one.

“Marist is different, I hang out with a lot of people from freshman year in Florence,” he said. He is happy with his decision to continue traveling for the rest of his college career. “I tried coming back [to the U.S.] and it was not for me.”

“I’m going back to Florence to graduate and I will receive a Marist LdM degree.” Seraleyva said that he thinks his decision to study abroad for most of his college career and receive a degree from Marist at Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence is a smart one. He will still technically have a Marist degree, which is becoming more and more valuable as years progress.

The artistic influence of Europe has allowed Seraleyva to experience more than if he had studied in Poughkeepsie.”I started out as a fashion design major then I switched to graphic design-I felt like my fine art core wasn’t strong enough,” he said.  He also interned at a web design agency through the FIE program in London.

“I’ve been assessing career options, I want to work with a magazine as an art director, go in the creative direction.” He’s trying to get an internship at Conde Nast for this summer, hoping to be placed at either W or Vogue.

“It will set me apart,” he said. “I kind of went crazy about the idea [of numerous study abroad experiences].” His study and intern abroad experiences will only be resume boosters for Seraleyva.

After graduation, Seraleyva would love to live abroad but is not sure what will become a reality. “As far as living out of the country [after graduation], I’ve thought about…like just import[ing] myself to Asia,” he said.

According to Seraleyva, Marist made it incredibly easy to study abroad semester after semester as well. “Coming to Poughkeepsie was harder then just staying in Florence,” Seraleyva said. It was a hassle to transfer files and information to Marist College from Florence where they all originated. Overall, Seraleyva stressed the ease with which he was able to country-hop around Europe for the first five semesters of his college experience.

Seraleyva was part of an experimental pool as a freshman in 2006. Originally the program was for fashion majors but Marist expanded the program to include all majors which led to Seraleyva’s decision to spend his first college semester abroad.

“I applied [to Marist] and went to orientation, and a couple days after orientation I got a call about the launching of a program for freshmen in Florence,” he said. He was fully planning on coming to school in Poughkeepsie, just like a majority of Marist students do.

“At first I was hesitant because of the whole freshman in college thing,” he said. But once he got to Florence, he had no urge to come back, partially because he would not know anyone at Marist College in Poughkeepsie.

By: Nicolas Seraleyva. Taken in Barcelona.

“It was easy to fall into a routine in Florence,” Seraleyva said. Although, he liked how every semester there was a new batch of students entering the city. Seraleyva had trouble picking his favorite abroad destination thus far, but he decided that Florence trumps it all.

“It’s a tough call,” Seraleyva said. “London is more cosmopolitan; however, Florence has more of a community scene.”

Seraleyva advocates studying abroad in all forms, although he doesn’t think that his path would be right for just anyone. “I recommend study abroad to everyone,” he said. “But, doing your freshman year in another country-you have to be aware of what you are doing.”

Seraleyva wouldn’t trade his experience for the world. “There was never a point where I didn’t want to be there, I never hated it.” He did have points where he thought about the woulda, coulda, shoulda’s, though.  As for the future, Seraleyva plans to continue traveling but he believes that every experience depends on the person.

“What I did is not right for every Marist student-you need to know what you’re getting into,” Seraleyva said.