A Memorable Week!

So this week the president of Kent State came to the Florence campus for her first time. Myself and 4 other students were chosen to be student ambassadors to show President Warren around our campus. Monday morning us 5 students and the whole faculty greeted her arrival that the school. We then took her on a tour of the building, I had to give her a tour of the studio floor and explain our project for the semester. We were lucky enough to then go to a product tasting at a well known local restaurant where we sampled many florence favorites, such as two different kinds of olive oil and balsamic, local cheeses, and procciutto. After lunch we went back to the school where we each were interviewed and asked many questions about our experience over seas. Using our answers the school is creating a video to show prospective students in the future! Day two the donors came to Florence. These people have given money to the Kent State Florence Program or created scholarships to give to students the opportunity to come abroad. There were about 30 of them total, and it was quite the experience meeting them! Only some of them did the Kent State Florence program, but each of them were very excited to hear about our experiences! It was neat hearing about how the program has blossomed over the years, I even talked to a man who lived on the same street I am when he spent his semester here. My final day we got to attend an amazing dinner at the only 5 star hotel in florence. The reception was on the top floor where the room overlooked the entire city! It was absolutely breathtaking. We had a full 4 course meal starting with salad, then a giant ravioli, a fish fillet, and ended with a little cake that was filled with ice cream! It was an amazing experience especially listening to the alumni talk about how Kent State has changed their lives and how this experience will change our lives. Honestly I don’t even go to Kent State full time but i almost got emotional, you could feel the passion and love in the room! And i think if any senior in high school was standing in that room they would be sold to go to Kent after these comments... heck I would consider transferring (not really but it was close) But I felt like a celebrity here. Donors were taking pictures with me, the president needed photos with us, left and right the camera were flashing.

Overall it was an amazing and memorable week, and I’m so thankful I got to experience it! I definitely will be having some fun nights in the near future with my fellow ambassadors because we had a blast during our week today!