Adam had a plan for his future, or so he thought he did. That was until he spent the summer in Italy.

Italian experience

As part of the College of Design’s study-aboard program in Rome, Adam spent the summer exploring Italy and learning how communities are impacted by the different elements of design.

Over the course of the summer Adam took classes on urban form and sustainable communities, as well as a senior seminar on community involvement. The first month of the program focused on social capital.

“We visited the Forum, the Coliseum, and a lot of the major basilicas, parks, and piazzas,” Adam said. “We spent time looking over those and viewing them with a different perspective—as more of a social place. The social capital that goes on in Rome is very different than other parts of the world.”

One of the class’s projects was to pick a social center and watch it at different times of the day. Adam chose the Spanish Steps as his vantage point, snapping pictures and taking notes throughout the day.

“We were able to see how an informal and formal sector of business interacted together,” Adam said. “It was really funny to see a Gucci and Armani store right next to each other and then you’d see people selling fake Gucci and Prada bags right down the alleyway.

“You’d see the tourists out during the day and the younger crowd at night. It was a big melting pot—people from all over Europe and all of the different tourists.”

The experience correlated directly to Adam’s major in community and regional planning. He would like to concentrate on urban revitalization, dealing with areas within a community that may be run down and not contributing to the community like they could be.

“My job as a planner would be to look into that run down area and see how it can be improved,” Adam said.

One of the ways Adam thinks American cities can be enhanced is by creating social centers.

“When you look at the United States, even in big cities, you see that social capital isn’t happening,” he said. “There aren’t many parks that succeed at having a lot of people there. You try and break it down—why can it be successful in Rome but not a big American city?

“The experience has shaped what I want to do. A dream project for me would be putting together a park or something like that as a revitalization program. Having the social capital there would just improve the area. There would be more flow for business, the area would be safer because there’d more eyes there, and incorporating social capital would really help out.”

When in Rome…

The sustainable community portion of the trip allowed Adam to take field trips throughout Italy. For the first field trip Adam went up the Tuscan countryside and stayed at an agriturismo, which is comparable to an American bed and breakfast.

“Everything on the agriturismo is from their own farm,” Adam said. “Their own wine, their own whole wheat for their pasta, etc. Everything that they produced is what they used. The excess is sold to their local markets instead of shipping it across the world.”

During the same trip Adam also visited Siena, Florence, Pisa, and Pienza. Naples, Sorrento, Mount Vesuvius, and the Island of Capri were destinations for the second field trip.

"Each city had its own identity," Adam said. "They each had something unique about them that made each trip to each city special."

Life changing

Both Adam’s experiences in Italy and at Iowa State have given him a greater perspective not only of himself but also the world.

“Italy was a life changing experience,” he said. “Getting out there and not knowing the language, and seeing all those different cultures was definitely life changing. It humbles you.

“Iowa State has done so much for me. It’s too big to put into words. There are too many different aspects you could go—admissions and working with students, design, Iowa State as a whole, [community regional] planning is a whole different part, my fraternity... There’s different relationships for everything and it all affects me in a different way. It’s too big for words.”