Giving Back to Siena
Antonio Artese, EAP Associate Study Center Director, Siena
Group of students serving as rescuers for Misericordia at the Palio of August 16
It’s 6 p.m. on a hot August day in the emergency room at Le Scotte Hospital in Siena, Italy. I find myself waiting in line to see a doctor for a medical consultation. While I wait my turn (fortunately it was nothing urgent) the doors of the emergency room open and an elderly lady in a wheelchair is escorted in by two young people dressed in fluorescent orange pants and white shirts with the logo of the Misericordia di Siena. The little old lady is smiling and continues to say “Thank you, thank you” in a thick Tuscan accent while the two girls lead her toward the elevator, then to the dialysis department, where she’ll meet with her doctor. After a couple seconds I hear a voice speak to me: “Antonio, what are you doing here?” and I recognize one of the summer quarter students. “Gotta go upstairs, see ya,” she says. Surprised, I smile and am just able to respond, “Hi.”
This summer, 23 EAP students (28 percent) participated in the volunteer course at the Misericordia di Siena. After six hours of training, students are able to volunteer on their free time at the Arciconfraternita della Misericordia di Siena, an association dating back to the Middle Ages that is dedicated to volunteer medical assistance and community service. EAP students volunteer their time and service riding aboard ambulances to accompany the elderly in need of dialysis or assisting in other non-emergency medical situations that may arise. For the first time in three years, six EAP students were selected to participate at the first-aid stations for the celebrated Palio horse race. The students assisted more than 40 people who were afflicted by illness or health conditions during the race, usually due to extended heat exposure in the Piazza del Campo.
The course at the Misericordia is just one of the volunteer and service learning activities that have been developed in Siena since 2004. A significant percentage of students who spend a quarter or semester in Siena take part in the volunteer program. These unique opportunities complete the educational curriculum of intensive language and culture courses offered by the Study Center and help facilitate the integration of our students into Siena’s social fabric.
Another popular volunteer activity the Study Center provides is teaching English as a second language. The Study Center in Siena collaborates with several local public elementary, middle, and high schools to help expose Sienese students taking English classes to native English speakers—an experience that otherwise wouldn’t be possible due to limited foreign language hours and even more limited funds. The students meet an assigned class about once a week and are instructed to plan and carry out activities or collaborate with the classroom teacher to assist in English conversation techniques.
Assistance to the Elderly is a volunteer activity in which students work in two public recreation centers for senior citizens. They work under the supervision of the activities coordinator of each center and participate in the organization and execution of group activities for the elderly.
The Italian special studies course on the Santa Maria della Scala museum is specifically designed for our students by two specialized docents of the historic institution of Santa Maria della Scala, originally founded as one of the very first hospitals in the Western world. In working so closely with the museum docents, EAP students get up close and personal with Siena’s rich artistic and cultural heritage. The course consists of weekly meetings with the docents and is taught in Italian. At the end of the term the participants give a detailed tour to their fellow EAP students.
The philosophy that lies behind all of these volunteer activities is our Study Center’s desire to help EAP students become a part of the social fabric and the community of Siena. EAP students constitute a homogenous group through language, origin, and academic context. They generally tend to socialize only among themselves and to speak mostly in English. EAP students have a tendency to close themselves off to social encounters with locals and other European university students, given the brief duration of our students’ stay in Siena. Even the interaction with their living environment (their daily functions in Italy) would be reduced to a minimum if it weren’t for an appeal to communicate and use the Italian language on a daily basis. The volunteer activities are therefore fundamental in helping EAP students break out of the English language bubble and enter into contact with the reality that surrounds them abroad.
An EAP student helps a class of students at the Elementary School Simone Martini
Another important aspect of the volunteer activities available to the students is the understanding that not everything can be bought through an economic transaction (i.e.,“I pay, therefore I am”). Siena represents a community that is fairly closed unto itself, and it is extremely proud and protective of its origins. The volunteer activities allow the students to enter into contact with the true Sienese community and learn that not everything can be acquired through fees and tuition. The respect, the reputation, the friendship created with people of the city, the sense of “serving” and of giving back to Siena, will eventually save our students from what I call the “student/customer” syndrome. The students discover that it is extremely rewarding to become a part of the community, where they find a place to meet real locals and overcome the sense of isolation that a foreign student might feel. The metaphor that represents the fruition of the social environment in Siena is that of a cake, where the frosting (abundant but less flavorful) is the uppermost layer that represents the tourists; the filling (too sweet and sometimes artificial) represents the Italian and foreign students; while the part of the cake that keeps everything together and on which is founded “the flavor of Siena” is the bottom layer, or the residents of Siena. To really taste it, therefore, one needs to go beyond the superficial bite to get to the real people, with the genuine experiences and the hospitality that they have to offer.
To conclude, the success of the volunteer activities in Siena also comes from the effort to academically reconstruct our Study Center, a process set into motion directly following the severance from the Università per Stranieri. The staff has strived to form relationships and meet with people from the community, to create dialogue and to put forth a sincere and professional image, committed to the broader scope of international education. Through this constant effort to establish relationships, a respect for tradition and enhancement of cultural mediation between our institution, its students, and the people of Siena, we have been able to involve an average of half of our students in a true cultural experience. And so becomes truth that which is written on one of the gates of Siena: “Cor magis tibi Sena pandit,” which translates to: “Siena opens its heart to you.”
Please urge students interested in the summer, fall, or spring options of the Siena program to explore the EAP website before the upcoming application deadline.