Rome Day 17: The Final Presentation

Wednesday was the day I had been dreading for a while: the last day of our SCO in Rome trip. I was overwhelmed with sadness when I woke up, but I knew our adventures were not yet finished.

The last day of class consisted of the Hofstra Romans presenting our work to our clients, Shoot4Change. Earlier in the week, we worked on finishing up our projects to the best of our ability and writing a report to show S4C the tasks we completed. I could not believe it was time for us to give our final report to S4C. The presentation went well, especially since we had not prepared for it as much as we could have. We were not able to check everything we intended to off our list due to issues with obtaining information we needed, but Andrea was completey pleased with our dedication. In fact, he said, “That’s something we would expect from a media agency,” when referring to our work. That compliment made everything worth it. We discussed our time together and the possibility of and hope to continue this relationship in the future. In fact, some students might take up working with S4C as an independent study during the school year and taking further steps to provide awareness about the organization on America soil.

I am so pleased that our relations with Shoot4Change went so well. Our study abroad program was not only special because we had jam-packed days of adventure and travel, but because we were able to do more than just study abroad. We could have easily taken film and public relations classes by working out of a textbook like a traditional learning experience, but we were fortunate enough to work beyond the classroom. Doing business with a real Italian organization was the best experience I could possibly imagine having on a study abroad trip. We not only learned so much from a real-life public relations standpoint, but we learned about Italian culture by interacting with S4C. From visiting to L’Aquila to our unplanned night at the refugee center, the Hofstra Romans are taking so much more home with us than a better understanding about our field of study.

Professor Hillebrand and Professor Morosoff dedicated so much time and effort to our educational and cultural experiences, and I could not be more thankful. This was a learning experience that will stick with me as long as I live.