{"id":10181,"date":"2024-04-30T12:59:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T12:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/?p=10181"},"modified":"2024-04-30T12:59:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T12:59:14","slug":"alumni-stories-andrew-and-ashley-spring-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/2024\/04\/30\/alumni-stories-andrew-and-ashley-spring-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Stories: Andrew and Ashley, Spring 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ashley and Andrew, then and now (with friend above and Ashley’s fianc\u00e9 below)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Besties Andrew Leone and Ashley Ouderkirk marked 20 years of friendship last fall when they reunited at the Villa Rossa where they met in Spring 2023. They were both Syracuse students but had not met before their semester abroad. The trip was also to celebrate Andrew’s recovery from a heart transplant five years ago, since they promised each other they would return to Florence together once he was healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We showed them around the Villa as they reminisced. “This is where we got adopted!” said Ashley when we stopped in Room 13, referring to the introductory meeting with their host families, with whom they both had amazing experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ashley with host family Carla and Loris Fintoni and roommate Adriana DeRice.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Andrew now works as a psychologist<\/a> and Ashley is a freelance art curator<\/a>. They told us how their semester abroad impacted their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Leone<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being of Italian descent, as my father is Sicilian, Italy had always had a special place in my heart. I\u2019ve traveled there many times over the last 30 years, including to our family home in Sicily. But Florence, surrounded by the art, history, culture, and just incredible energy of the city has always left a lasting impression on my heart, and now my new heart. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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It\u2019s the place where I met one of my dearest friends, who stood by my side, quite literally, throughout my whole heart ordeal. It has always been a special, sacred place to me that represents the crossroads of youth and now gratitude and wisdom that supposedly comes with age. Hopefully it won\u2019t be another 19 years before I return! That I promise.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ashley<\/em> Ouderkirk<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to distill into a few sentences how much the experience changed me, but I will say it was probably one of the fastest emotional and philosophical growth periods of my young life.<\/strong> \u00a0I took huge risks and decided to completely leave my comfort zone. \u00a0I went knowing no one (leaving a boyfriend and great friends behind), was extremely shy, had a minimal grasp of the language, overextended my budget, and unknowingly risked my GPA (all of my art history classes counted towards my major).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Me (front left) with my American Artists in Italy class taught by Professor MaryAnn Calo. \u00a0One of the highlights of my studies there, as I STILL apply things I learned to my current writing and curatorial practice.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

From that I was rewarded with experiencing life from a very different cultural perspective; fully immersed in the cradle of art history with the benefit of examining the actual objects \u2014 that most students only see on slides \u2014 with my own eye; and really understanding this distinction between travel \u2014 where you are immersed in a culture\u2019s food, art, people, etc. \u2014 and vacation where you seek an escape from your life and are looking to sample the highlights. \u00a0And of course I met quite a few life long friends!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Me at the Opera Del Duomo Museo for my internship as a museum tour guide.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In terms of concrete examples, working as a tour guide for the Opera del Duomo Museum for my internship is probably the easiest line to draw. \u00a0It was the first time I was the teacher and my students were regular people of all ages with limited background on art, so I had quite the challenge. \u00a0How do you summarize all the important history in the museum, without overwhelming them, \u00a0and keep them engaged? \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I discovered was making the tour more interactive, telling stories about the pieces rather than just listing off facts, and making it more \u201cmacro\u201d art history \u2014 connecting historical timeline\/era\u00a0or important artists or techniques to things they might have already seen in Rome or Venice or even around Florence. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my career to this day, whether I\u2019m curating a show or writing articles or helping an artist write their artist statement, I\u2019m always thinking in the back of my mind \u2014 how can I open this up to a larger audience and find a way for them to feel welcomed, curious, and engaged?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Besties Andrew Leone and Ashley Ouderkirk marked 20 years of friendship last fall when they reunited at the Villa Rossa where they met in Spring 2023. They were both Syracuse students but had not met before their semester abroad. The trip was also to celebrate Andrew’s recovery from a heart transplant five years ago, since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10181"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10378,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10181\/revisions\/10378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}