Stranger in strange land no more: Interview with an AMS Student

Gaia Cozzi AMS’14 is a student in the American Studies Diploma Program, a one year program offered to international students to study in the United States at Smith College. Hailing from the University of Florence in Italy, Gaia is a graduate student here to further her education and make the most of her time living in America.

For Gaia, who majored in Communications with an interest in sustainable agriculture, she wrote her thesis on sustainable food and was interested in ways to persuade people to invest in local produce. She has been impressed by the local-grown food initiatives in Northampton and Smith College. However, the food she eats at Smith in the dining halls is vastly different from what she would eat in Florence, and thus she has felt homesick. While Gaia may be homesick, she is still open to the benefits of studying abroad. She advises students who plan to study abroad that they will “need to be tolerant and try to understand. Don’t judge based off of your cultural code. You tend to forget that when you are homesick.”

Luckily, her previous study abroad experience in Finland during high school gave her some preparation for the United States.  At first she struggled to adjust to life in Finland, but Gaia credits her age for her fast adaptability. She was young and willing to make mistakes, so she learned quickly. She encourages students studying abroad to follow this example.

Gaia practiced and became confident in her language skills, which she then used in other areas of her life. For instance, she started a candy shop catering to a mainly American clientele. It was because of this candy shop that she wasn’t too bewildered by American culture; she had much exposure to it before she arrived in the United States and knew what to expect.

Gaia was always interested in English and learned a lot of of English by traveling. This self-motivation is what eventually earned her a scholarship to Smith’s AMS program that she is still in disbelief to have received.

This interview was conducted by Global STRIDE students Sarah Liggera ’17 and Kaitlin Scholand ’17.