January 10, 2011
She never planned to be an author, but Kristin Johansen ‘13TCB
completed a children’s book during a freshman class in Rome, Italy.
Diana Capalbo ‘13CPS anticipates seeing her first poetry in print.
And Anthony O’Reilly ‘13CPS wrote a short story about traveling in
Italy.
St.
John’s students this year completed creative writing projects in Rome, Italy, as
part of the University’s new Freshman
Passport Program. The 67 students were the second group of
freshmen in the program, more than doubling the number of the first
participants in August 2009.
Students spent their fall semester at the Queens and Staten Island
campuses before going to St. John’s Rome, Italy,
campus. Three freshman writing classes took part in the program,
along with Discover New
York (DNY), a core course whose students compared life in New
York to Rome. The writing professors were
Derek Owens, D.A., Associate Professor and Executive Director,
Institute
for Writing Studies;
Tara Roeder, Assistant Professor (Queens); and
David Farley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor (Staten Island). Prof.
Adam Smith taught DNY (Queens).
“This is the first time freshman composition had an
international component — and we’re going to see more of it,” said
Dr. Owens. Freshman Passport combines academics with Italian
language, culture and historic sites. Like all study abroad at St.
John’s, it features leadership training and service.
St. John’s also has a
Paris, France, campus and locations around the world, so
students can live, learn and serve in Europe, Asia and Latin
America. Learn more about the growing
Global Studies opportunities at St. John’s.