{"id":10503,"date":"2024-06-06T14:58:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T12:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/?p=10503"},"modified":"2024-06-10T12:04:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T10:04:25","slug":"alumni-stories-jean-telljohann-and-presley-schwinn-fall-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/2024\/06\/06\/alumni-stories-jean-telljohann-and-presley-schwinn-fall-1979\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Stories: Jean Telljohann and Presley Schwinn, Fall 1979"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Longtime friends Jean Telljohann (n\u00e9e Amabile) and Presley Schwinn (n\u00e9e Neithammer) met while studying at Syracuse Florence in the Fall of 1979. Jean was a comparative lit major from Princeton and Presley was an art history major from Sweet Briar College. Here are some of their reflections on that life-changing semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syracuse Florence classes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean: I studied Italian language and literature, art history, and a wonderful English class on literature set in Italy.  I remember reading Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun, Henry James’s The Golden Bowl, and Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.  I wish I could remember the rest of the syllabus!  It was an excellent course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presley: The professors were marvelous, especially the opportunity to speak to the class in front of an important piece of art. The sweet fellow who had the caf\u00e9 stand was essential, especially for Bacis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most vivid memory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean: When I began to dream in Italian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The host family experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presley: My signora’s apartment was quite grand and centrally located. Unfortunately, she was quite difficult and so I eliminated meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of studying in Florence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presley: I continued to study art history and ended up being the senior grants writer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean: Studying abroad in Florence helped me to develop fluency in Italian, which led to further travel throughout Italy, a love of singing and attending performances of Italian opera, and reading Dante and other Italian authors in the original.  I wish I could say that I am still fluent, but I do gather with friends to practice Italian conversation and see Italian films.  I am still in contact with several of my friends from our days in Florence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fieldtrip to Rome<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean: I remember a day trip to Arezzo and a longer trip to Rome, where my friends and I saw The Graduate dubbed in Italian and then stayed to see it again.  It’s funny that that’s the memory that sticks!  One funny coincidence related to the field trips is that in 2000 I returned to Florence and met my friend Presley for lunch and a photo op outside the school at Piazza Savonarola.  Presley was traveling in Italy the same week I was.  When the driver I hired for the day saw the school, he recalled that he had been the bus driver who had taken us on the field trip to Rome!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reuniting in Florence in 2000.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reuniting in Florence in 2000.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meeting the locals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean: In 1979, most of the students were girls.  Our group was invited by the Italian Air Force Academy to a dance.  They sent a bus to pick us up at the school and return us at the end of the evening.  We met a very nice group of Italian young men and palled around a bit with them on the weekends afterward.  We were all just friends, no romances, but I think that at least one person from our semester did marry a local Italian man.  The memories from that semester are very strong, so incredibly I can still remember the names of the young men we met, Giacinto, Filippo, Alfio, Pino. <\/strong> They had come from all over Italy for their required military service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impressions of Florence on return trips<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presley: Florence upon return seemed much more crowded but still heavenly. Even found the best gelato store! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean: My Syracuse-Florence semester was my first trip to Italy, but I have returned several times since, including for Syracuse Florence’s 50th anniversary celebration.  I used the coincidence of my own 50th birthday as an excuse to attend. In general, Florence seemed busier, but the area near the Duomo, closed to auto traffic, was quieter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A recent photo at a historic inn on the Delaware River where Presley (left) and Jean (right) like to meet for lunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where they are now<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presley: I work part time at the Chanticleer garden in Wayne as I am passionate about gardening, the landscape, and environmental concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean: I am retired from my second career as a museum administrator and am now busy with family, volunteer work, and travel. I also serve on Princeton University’s Advisory Council to the Department of French and Italian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime friends Jean Telljohann (n\u00e9e Amabile) and Presley Schwinn (n\u00e9e Neithammer) met while studying at Syracuse Florence in the Fall of 1979. Jean was a comparative lit major from Princeton and Presley was an art history major from Sweet Briar College. Here are some of their reflections on that life-changing semester. Syracuse Florence classes Jean:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":10505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503","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=10503"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10512,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503\/revisions\/10512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suabroad.syr.edu\/florence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}