Italian Undergraduate School System

After reading and hearing about the Italian school system, I find it to be very different from the system in the US in so many ways. The most astonishing to me is that you can take your final test whenever you please. In the states they are extremely strict on when you take your final. If you do not take it at the exact time you are told on that exact day, you will most likely fail the class and receive no credit for your semester. Also, the idea of taking an oral exam seems outdated and tedious. Yes, ideally it is a good way to see what material the students actually know and to prevent them from cheating but it does not seem practical. Just the sheer amount of time that that process takes is argument enough to change it. With written exams it is much more efficient because the students can all get it done at the same time. Also, everyone has the same amount of time to study. 

With this process it makes sense why students tend to go to school for so much longer. In the US you are expected to graduate in 4 years unless there are certain circumstances. Many students change their major part of the way through so it takes them longer to complete there degree which leads to the 5th year. I cannot imagine a student going to undergrad for 9 years like some of the students in Italy do. One thing they have in common is that people with less money and support usually graduate earlier as they don't have the time or money to waste dinking around.

Volunteering

The volunteering night that I did with Ronda della Solidarieto has probably been one of my favorite things that i've done in Rome so far. To understand a different culture you need to know all sides of it. It was so interesting to know more about the people in poverty that I see every day around the city but don't know much about. Also, this organization was very different from any I have volunteered with before. Every one there seemed fully invested in the people they were helping. They weren't just volunteering to make themselves feel better, they genuinely cared about these people and treated them as equals. As unfortunate as it is, that doesn't seem to happen very often. Throughout the night we made special stops in order to accommodate for different people like one deaf and blind man who sought out. There was also a shy girl who did not like to be around big groups so we brought her portion to a store where she could pick it up on her own. I was especially struck when we walked up to one man and he began hugging a few of the woman and calling them sorella. There was a bond there that was completely unique from other situations i've been in which was really refreshing. Of course now I am forgetting his name but the whole night was made because one of the men that was volunteering with us took the time to explain these different situations to us in English which I greatly appreciated.