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Karen Ruggles ’08 (Easton, Pa.) admittedly has a “travel bug.” So when the opportunity arose to spend a semester abroad in Italy, she couldn’t turn it down.
Ruggles traveled to Italy through the Syracuse University Abroad in Florence program. Through the program, students choose one of three tracks of study based on language skills, ranging from no Italian to advanced skills. They study with top researchers and scholars in their fields to uncover the connections among history, politics, and creativity.
A double major in art and English, Ruggles took courses in advanced digital photography, drawing research, creative writing, and Italian. It was her host family, however, that provided the best language lessons.
“My host mother was a widow who has been hosting for many years,” explains Ruggles. “The most difficult and rewarding experience of living with a host family was the language barrier; my host mother spoke no English. Over her many years of hosting English-speaking students, she acquired the words ‘dog’ and ‘boyfriend’ – draw from that what you will. Needless to say, conversation took place in Italian. Unfortunately, I spoke no Italian and neither did my roommate. Every night I went to the dinner table armed with my studies in linguistics and an English to Italian dictionary. Although it was difficult to communicate most of the time, I learned more Italian than I ever would have with a bilingual host family.”
Although the main part of her study abroad program took place in Florence, it was important to Ruggles to explore the rest of the country and travel to other destinations in Europe. In Italy, she visited Sicily, Salerno, Rome, Ceveteri, Venice, Lake Como, Cinque Terre, Lucca, Assisi, Pisa, and Ravenna.
“It was very easy with Syracuse school to travel to many places in Italy; the school ran many trips to various places in Italy for free,” says Ruggles. “Italy is relatively small, but the people change so much from region to region, partly to do with the immense pride and history each region holds tightly to. Everyone was friendly and, if you spoke Italian, eager to speak back and help you learn. The culture is very warm in Italy – you can feel it when you walk down the street and you can see it has only grown from the time of the great art that many Americans only see in textbooks.”
Ruggles also had the opportunity to visit locations in Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, and the Ukraine. She was especially fascinated by Tunisia.
“Some friends and I spent our spring break touring Tunisia because it was important to us to have fun, but also to learn about a country we would have little opportunity to visit again,” she says. “Of everywhere I have been in the past five months, Tunisia was the most remarkable. Positioned between Libya and Algeria in northern Africa, Tunisia has developed a neutral attitude to rival Switzerland’s history and has turned to tourism to create revenue. Tunisia has beaches, a salt lake you can drive through, open-air markets, the Sahara Desert, and the oldest mosque in Africa.”
In Greece, Ruggles visited Athens and “walked into the art history I learned about at Lafayette.” She visited Yalta and Odessa in the Ukraine.
“Both places in Ukraine struck me as struggling to survive, relying mainly on tourism to find solace,” she says. “These places gave me appreciation for rebuilding after utter destruction and loss of hope.”
Visiting Istanbul in Turkey also was a huge learning experience for Ruggles.
“According to my guide, Turkey is becoming more and more a destination for tourists,” she says. “Istanbul is the epicenter for culture simply because of its location and has been called the Gateway to the East. I saw the many palaces, religious buildings, and the famous Grand Bazaar. Istanbul was an incredible learning experience for me, and I would recommend it to anyone.”
Ruggles believes her time in Italy taught her important lessons, not just from an academic standpoint but also from a very personal one.
“I have learned so much; it is hard to articulate,” she says. “I have learned facts, dates. I have learned about art and language and people, and I learned about me too, which is what I think is one of the most important lessons I could have learned. When we learn about ourselves, we aren’t just acting as a bridge for information, but holding that information in our hands, turning it around, and thinking. When we learn about ourselves, we mold our lives because if you understand something, you know where you stand. From there, I can go anywhere.”
Ruggles also studied abroad with a group of seven Lafayette students in France as a Rothkopf Scholar, exploring medieval art and architecture with emphasis on the great cathedrals of France through June 12. The participating students were selected through a competitive process on the basis of essays they submitted, grade point average, and their overall record within the art department and the College.
Last summer, she traveled to Uganda with civil and environmental engineering majors David Kendall ’08 (Lebanon, Pa.), Christa Kelleher ’08 (Tigard, Ore.), R.J. Sindelar ’08 (Houston, Texas), and Bailey Simone ’08 (Westfield, Mass.) through the EXCEL Scholars program. The team, led by Roger Ruggles, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, collaborated with students and faculty at Makerere University in Kampala to collect data on how agricultural intrusion affects local wetlands.
She also spent three weeks in Hawaii through the special Lafayette interim course The Geologic Evolution of the Hawaiian Islands in 2005.
After returning from her travels, Ruggles will conduct research in the art department through the Community of Scholars program, a collaborative research initiative that brings together groups of students for research guided by professors.
Ruggles worked with mathematics graduate Tom Harju ’07; English majors Danielle Koupf ’08 (Randolph, N.J.) and Lauren Menges ’08, (Vestal, N.Y.), and mathematics and computer science double major George Armah ’08 (Accra, Ghana) to revitalize downtown Easton through a unique course called Technology Clinic. Led by Larry Malinconico, associate professor of geology and environmental geosciences, and Dan Bauer, professor of anthropology and sociology, Tech Clinic teaches students real-world skills while they work for a client outside the College, in this case the City of Easton.
During the fall midterm elections in 2006, she was a producer for Lafayette’s historic ENvision, the College’s first-ever, undergraduate-run, live election night coverage. As producer, she coordinated the evening’s events.
She is vice president of Writing Organization Reaching Dynamic Students and a photographer for The Lafayette student newspaper.