Today Kathy Berardi works in public relations as a consultant and writer-producer in entertainment from Los Angeles, CA and visits Italy as often as she can.
What was your major and home school when you came to Syracuse Florence?
Kathy: I attended Canisius College in Buffalo, New York and I was a communication studies major. Being able to transfer for a semester to another New York State institution with the Syracuse program in Florence was a perfect choice for my cultural interests and streamlined for my academic credits to easily transfer.
Do you have any anecdotes about adjusting to the culture?
Kathy: My own family is Italian-American, so the family experience of living with my host mom who I met through Syracuse in Florence, Paola Marotta, felt totally natural. For whatever cultural adjustment I had to make the first few weeks I was there, the fact that I had such a nurturing experience in my new home made everything much easier. I do remember being jet lagged the first few weeks, and sometimes feeling like I had woken up in a dream just because everything in the city felt like I was walking on a movie set of Renaissance Florence. It felt surreal at times for sure in the beginning.
You have stayed close to your host family. How did staying with them influence your experience?
Kathy: It really did make all the difference in the world. I was the first person in my US family to travel abroad. I was the only person from my college in the US to come to this program. I really did take a leap of faith to come alone to Italy, via the Syracuse program, with the trust that I would make friends. What I did not anticipate is that I would connect so closely with someone like Paola in a way that made us like family for the rest of our lives, as shown by the fact that 20+ years later, we still visit each other and even my daughter who’s 14 calls Paola her Italian grandmother! I made many other close friends at Syracuse that semester with whom I also traveled and explored the rest of Italy and Europe.
Paola made Florence feel like home, and to a larger extent – Italy to also feel like a place I could always return to. I returned for a few months after graduating college the following year before coming back to the US to begin my professional career. After that I returned in January 2023 and she graciously hosted my daughter and I in her downtown Florence VRBO so that we could experience the city like residents and most recently we stayed this past June 2024 with her and her husband in their countryside residence in the hills outside of Florence. I am returning this Christmas to conduct a language study program and technology conference and I am looking forward to spending the holidays with them!
So in answer to the original question – by literally feeling like she was adopting me as a parent here in Italy – being way more than just a “host” – Paola reconnected me with my Italian heritage and became a part of my life forever, just like family! And I feel I can always return to reconnect with her and Italy because of our bond and the way she really opened up her home and heart to me some 20+ years ago!
What did you enjoy the most about the program?
Kathy: I really appreciated the fact that the entire opportunity for this life changing experience came by way of the fact that one day while I was walking down the hall at Canisius College I passed by the International Studies office and saw a poster on the wall for “Study Abroad in Florence”. From that moment onward, Syracuse University in Florence was my bridge from studying just in the US to becoming an internationally educated student, a more well-rounded citizen of the world, and truly open-minded human being. Thanks to the opportunity Syracuse presented to me, I experienced the shift in perspective that I found for me only came from immersing myself in a new culture for a long period of time and experiencing something completely foreign. The lasting effects touch me still to this day when I connect with people of other cultures and languages here in the US and in my yearning to travel to see new places as a lifelong pursuit.
How did your time in Florence affect your life and/or career?
Kathy: My time in Florence gave me confidence. I was a junior in college when I studied in Florence. Within one year, I would be out in the job market, interviewing for new jobs in a challenging post 9/11 (2001) economy and relocating to a major US city hundreds of miles from home (having moved for my first job from near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Atlanta, Georgia) to pursue career opportunities. The move within the same country and where everyone spoke the same language seemed like an easy step after living abroad and having to speak a foreign language on a daily basis to communicate like when I lived in Florence. My experience in Florence, in the trusted community provided by Syracuse, for the first time in 2000 gave me the courage and confidence to go anywhere and pursue anything for pretty much the rest of my life. In 2006 I had the opportunity to relocate again – this time from Atlanta to Los Angeles for a Masters in Film from UCLA – and I jumped at the chance with complete ease, once again emboldened in a good way thanks to the personal growth I experienced in Florence. Today I continue to reside in Los Angeles (with frequent trips back to Italy!), and credit my experience in Florence with giving me the confidence to know I will find my way, wherever I am.
How has Florence and the Villa Rossa changed since you studied here?
Kathy: The gardens in the back I think have expanded and the library building has changed and is now bigger and I think the engineering building in the back is also new. The main Villa does look and feel the same though. And the spirit of the school remains the same: welcoming, nurturing, and supportive. When I walked in, the vibe I felt was the same as when I was a student. As a city, Florence remains timeless for me – I do not think it has changed at all, to be honest!
What advice would you give current students?
Kathy: Trust that it will feel “weird” for the first few weeks and that that experience is totally normal and totally temporary. But also trust that Florence will come to feel like home, your surroundings and new living space will come to feel like home. Time during your study abroad semester will seem slow in the beginning but will fly at exponential pace towards the middle and before you know it – you will be headed back to the US after an incredible semester and you will be incredibly sad, most likely, to leave. So while you are there, find the time to live like a resident, engage with the community and people in Florence like they are your neighbors, and enjoy the museums, night life, restaurants, train rides to other cities and every opportunity the Syracuse program offers you to explore. Because when you get back to the US and graduate college, you will likely start working and getting back to Italy for a prolonged period of time may take a while as your career journey, and life unfolds in your 20s and 30s.
In my case it was a very long while – 22 years between the last time I left and when I returned. So enjoy it while you can with the deep appreciation that for this phase of your journey it is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. The day before I left Florence the first time in June 2000, I remember looking over the Arno River on a last nighttime stroll and I saw a church illuminated that I did not yet know. And I remember feeling regret that I did not take the time to cross the river to check out that church while I had the chance in the days, weeks or even months before. And it was at that moment that I decided I would have to return some day, somehow. So definitely – take it all in, study hard, but be a student of culture and study by interacting, experiencing and immersing yourself in the world of the Renaissance around you.