Course Info and Itinerary

Program Dates

May 18 - June 26, 2026

Excursion to Bologna

All students participating in Pathways to the Steger Center will join in a shared trip to Bologna during their program. The Bologna excursion is included in the program fee.

Courses

Visual Arts and Culture (ART 1334)

3 credits, Pathways 2

Students will explore Riva San Vitale and Bologna through the lens of a visual artist. The lido comunale on Lake Lugano is a favorite of locals, a destination for travelers, and an ideal beach location to make action drawings that illustrate a diverse community in real time. Drawing in and around the Tiempo Di Santa Croce (Michelangelo’s final resting place) will reveal relationships between contemporary practices and the late renaissance. Other field excursions will range from the tops of surrounding mountains, to the cafes in town, to a week exploring the maze-like master plan of Bologna. This is an exciting opportunity to develop visual communication skills applicable to a life of creative and critical thinking. No drawing experience required.

Create! (ENGE 2094)

3 credits, Pathways 6d

Create! is designed to lead students through the process of creative inquiry, design, and collaboration to explore the nexus of the arts, science, and design. Through activities and discussions students will build an understanding of the ties between multiple disciplines. To identify these ties, students will engage in activities that build participation and questioning strategies for workshops and lectures, problem finding, analogical and metaphorical thinking, and collaboration in multiple formats. The collaboration of students, faculty, and visiting artists will encourage students to explore their own interests as they are situated within the boundaries of disciplines and provide strategies to create and innovate within and among disciplines. ENGE 2094 fulfills requirements in Design + Technology + Creative Expression Pathways Minor.

Italian through Creative Practice: Cooking, Acting, Travel Writing (ITAL 3954)

3 credits, Pathways 6a

The emphasis in this course is on “doing”, the gerund form of each of the verbs in the course title. We will dig our hands into the creative acts of cooking, travel writing, and acting, learning related specifics of the Swiss Italian context, connecting with your peers, and led by expert faculty. Within each unit, you will produce a memorable final project, from which we hope that you will be able to retain some memento that you will cherish. This course is an opportunity to apply and practice the specific language objectives already acquired in your first semester Italian course taken in Blacksburg (ITAL 1105) through hands on introductory level creative experiences of the arts taught in the Italian language and supported by Dr Dodi, our expert in second language acquisition at the Steger Center. Through this practice, you will learn to understand and produce the spoken and written language better, imbedded in the specific culture of the language.