The Full Immersion Rome Experience will be held during Summer 2024. The F.I.R.E program is an academic program designed for students with no prior study of Italian. Over the course of the 11-week program you will take 3 courses: Italian 1 (language), Italian 2 (language), and Italian 4 (culture). You receive 3 Dartmouth credits, and also complete two thirds of the Dartmouth language requirement! There is no prerequisite for this program, and it is open to students of all classes. We especially encourage first-year students to apply!
We're very excited about the F.I.R.E. program, since it is a new model of study abroad at Dartmouth. The typical Language Study Abroad or Foreign Study Program in language and literature departments requires students to reach a certain level of language proficiency before they go abroad. Our F.I.R.E. program, on the other hand, allows you to start your intensive study of Italian language and culture with a bang, on site in Rome! You get a double dose of language courses compared with a term on campus, and all of Rome is your language lab, resulting in basic conversational proficiency in just 11 weeks. When you get back to campus, you may complete your language requirement by taking Italian 3, and then continue on to our more advanced classes.
On F.I.R.E. students live in apartments in the lively Trastevere neighborhood, and take full part in the dynamic cultural life of Rome during the summer. All courses involve in-class and on-site lectures and classes, guest presentations, and cultural activities such as walking tours, visits to piazzas and markets, and trips to the opera and sporting events. Students also visit major Roman monuments (Colosseum, Roman Forum, St. Peters and Vatican Museums, Borghese Gallery) and travel on group excursions to other towns and cities of Italy. Other exciting experiential activities may include family homestays in a small village and a week-long camp with an anti-Mafia organization.
The deadline for submitting applications is February 1st, 2024.