57 years young

Happy birthday, SAIS Bologna.

C. Grove Haines and Clare Booth Luce
at the Bologna Center inaugural ceremony

Fifty-seven years ago today, the Bologna Center was inaugurated with a colorful ceremony and procession of dignitaries including U.S. Ambassador to Italy Clare Booth Luce and Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Ermini. The events culminated at the University of Bologna's resplendent Aula Magna, a reminder of the city's nine centuries of academic leadership and renown.

The Center started in borrowed rooms with four (all male) professors and 10 students from Austria, France, Italy and the United States. Six years after its founding, the program moved into a new building at via Belmeloro 11 where it has stayed since.

Today, there are some 190 students from 39 countries, hailing from all of the inhabited continents. At the end of this academic year they will join the more than 6,500 Bologna Center alumni from more than 110 countries.

Students in the early days

There is no shortage of legends about the origins of the Bologna Center. What is sure is the founder, C. Grove Haines, had a strong scholarly and emotional attachment to Italy. Some say U.S. intelligence funds may have supported the Center in its early days.

If so, could it be said that the money was well spent for Johns Hopkins, SAIS, Italy and the global community that the Center serves?

As this magazine commemorating SAIS Bologna's 10-year anniversary so eloquently put it, the early students were "growing up when the New Europe was being born of ashes and a dream; tomorrow they will help to prod the vision to fulfillment."

Is SAIS Bologna still relevant?

Consider SAIS's mission as defined in the magazine: "to prepare the best available candidates for careers in internationally-oriented areas of government, business, teaching, and research."

It's much the same today, 57 years later.

Class of 2011 in front of via Belmeloro 11

Nelson Graves

Open Day: A chance to see SAIS Bologna for yourself

On December 9, SAIS Bologna will open its doors to prospective applicants.

The day-long event will give visitors the chance to learn more about SAIS by meeting students and faculty; attending classes and lectures, and visiting Bologna.

Register now for Open Day on Dec 9

Traditionally current students provide accommodation for the visitors. Send us an email if you’d like to experience bolognese hospitality. You'll have an opportunity to gather more information about SAIS while saving money on accommodation.

Click here to view the schedule and to register.

If you can’t make it to Open Day because you have commitments or you live too far away from Bologna, there are other ways to learn more about SAIS:

• We'll be at APSIA fairs in the next two weeks: Vienna (Nov 2), Geneva (Nov 3), Madrid (Nov 5), Paris (Nov 7)

• We'll be holding online information sessions in November and December. The next one will be on November 22 at 7 pm Italy time (1800 GMT). Send us a message if you'd like to participate. As always, you are also welcome to contact us via Skype (jhubc.admissions) or telephone (+39 051 29 17 811).

Byron Sacharidis, a current student from Greece, attended Open Day last year. Here in his words is what Open Day meant to him.

Byron Sacharidis

With the spotlight on the statement of aims, letters of recommendation and standardized test scores, it is very easy to overlook the practical benefit of a school visit. In my case, I am glad I registered for Open Day last winter because it helped confirm my interest in SAIS and strengthened my motivation to apply for graduate studies.

The event was carefully planned and made a good impression. Having been offered accommodation by a current student, a notable part of the culture here in Bologna, I had the chance to familiarize myself with student life in ways that no site or brochure could convey. Right away, the feeling of belonging and the discovery of a rare, close-knit community, where diversity and camaraderie thrive, fueled my enthusiasm about what this beautiful city has to offer.

From last year's Open Day

After a warm welcome, we were offered a session where we could pose questions and discuss issues with school representatives and staff. This was a good opportunity to ask what I would hesitate asking over the phone or via email. What is more, during a lecture I was happy to discover first hand the accessibility of my professors-to-be. I got a taste of how classes felt and appreciated the two-fold teaching approach: some classes are lecture-based and others are seminars. The day could not have ended better than with a happy hour at Giuglio’s Bar, where I relaxed and reassessed my overall impressions and the vibes I had got during the day, while getting caught up in interesting debates with students.

Memorable, but above all useful in many different ways, Open Day ended up playing a decisive role in my search for graduate school by putting things into perspective. I encourage you to take the plunge and see for yourself.

Amina Abdiuahab

Photographs by SAIS Bologna students

Bologna is a photographer's dream and also a very good jumping-off point to visit other, photogenic spots in Europe and beyond.

Here are some photographs by students in this year's class.

by Jace Han

by Jace Han

by Elizabeth Forro

by Jace Han

by Elizabeth Forro

by Shelley Ranii

by Steve Farole

by Carlos Goes

by Carlos Goes

by Elizabeth Forro

by Corey Cox

by Steve Farole

by Carlos Goes

Nelson Graves

What do our alumni miss most about their year in Bologna?

For eight weeks, SAIS Bologna's website has been a repository of alumni memories.

Flexing our social media muscles, we asked alumni to answer the question: "What do you miss most about your year in Bologna?"

The result has been a river of postings by several dozen alumni. Below you will see some of the photographs that were submitted to the competition, which ended yesterday, October 17.

In an August post published just before the competition started, I wrote about how for many alumni, SAIS Bologna is an intimate academic community.

Before turning to the photographs, let me exercise a bit of editorial prerogative and call your attention to a touching piece by Patti Bonnet, who attended SAIS Bologna in 1992-93. You might find her reminisces unusual, but I'm sure you will admire her skillful way with words and read her tale until the end.

My technological talents are not up to the task of posting two other items you might like to view: an offering by Fabiana Papaianni capturing her class's fifth year reunion, and a slideshow by Tom Tesluk with images of the city accompanied by the haunting sound of church bells.

I've also taken the liberty of including a slideshow of photographs that I submitted. Auteur oblige.

Enjoy.

by Alix Murphy

by Nick Hopkinson

by Kathleen Tesluk

by Teresa Meoni

by Tom Tesluk

by Natalya Lyoda

by Jerome Ingenhoff

by Christopher Brownfield

by Monica Sendor

by David Mason

by Monica Sendor

by Sarah Sparker

by David Mason

by Tanya Gulnik

Nelson Graves

Bologna's mayor welcomes SAIS students

Earlier this week, Mayor Virginio Merola welcomed SAIS Bologna students to Bologna. This traditional welcome was launched by Giuseppe Dozza, who served as mayor from 1945 to 1966, as a friendly means of telling SAIS students what makes Bologna special.

Giacomo Tagiuri
and
Harriet Di Francesco

Bologna is home to the oldest operating university in the world. Since medieval times it has been a temporary home to students from all over the world, including this year's SAIS students. Our more than 6,500 alumni remember their time in Bologna as a life-changing experience, and many of their memories connect to the friendliness of the bolognesi, their open-mindedness and the beauty of the city.

(For a record of some of our alumni's memories, have a look at photos, videos and text that they have posted on our website here.)

Mayor Merola discussed his experience as il primo cittadino di Bologna and the challenges he's faced since coming to office. At the end of the speech students asked questions. Graffiti are normally a popular issue our students address, but this year they engaged the mayor on his battle against corruption, recycling and parks in the centro storico.

Below is a short video that captures a brief bit of the speech and comments by two students, Giacomo Tagiuri and Harriet Di Francesco, after listening to Merola.



If you are reading this on email, you can view the video here.

Amina Abdiuahab

Here's a look at SAIS Bologna

Today Amal Ali takes us on a tour of SAIS Bologna.

Amal's tour speaks for itself. Some of the sights -- the library, auditorium, Giulio's bar -- will be familiar to many of our readers. But Amal takes the blog video camera to the basement for the first time. (Quiz question: When did we last post an item relating to the basement, and what did it involve? A cappuccino at Giulio's for the winner.)

A word on the building. It was designed by Enzo Zacchiroli, a Bolognese architect who won the National Institute of Architecture's (In/ARCH) top award in 1961 for his design, which managed to integrate the Bologna Center into its distinctive, medieval surroundings while making a modern statement.


View Bologna in a larger map

You may notice in the video three classes taught in Italian. That is because classes on the afternoon that Amal took us on the tour were devoted to languages. There are eight  languages taught at SAIS Bologna, which requires all students to pass a proficiency exam in a foreign language before they can graduate. All classes aside from languages are taught in English, which is why strong skills in that language are required for entry into SAIS.

Follow Amal, who is in our 2011-12 class, on her guided tour:



If you are reading this blog post on email, click here to see the video.

Nelson Graves

Meeting our faculty: Prof. Keller

Kenneth Keller is SAIS Bologna's director and also teaches "Science, Technology and International Affairs". Prof. Keller is proof that many roads can lead to SAIS. Who would have thought a chemical engineer could blaze a trail in international relations?

Your degrees?
AB, liberal arts, Columbia University
BS, chemical engineering, Columbia University
MSE, chemical engineering, Johns Hopkins
PhD, chemical engineering, Johns Hopkins

Where have you taught?
University of Minnesota (Chemical Engineering; Biomedical Engineering; Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs)
Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs)
Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) - I've taught at SAIS Bologna for six years, first on a sabbatical leave from the University of Minnesota (2003-2004) and then during my term as Director (which started in 2006).

Links to a recent article and a speech:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/f27701444u9771r1/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X06000169

Anything special about SAIS Bologna?
What's special about SAIS is SAIS Bologna -- the fact that students, over two years, one in Bologna and one in Washington, see international affairs from two different perspectives, an extraordinary and unique learning experience.

Anything special about Bologna?
What's special about Bologna is its perfect blendings: a medieval city with a vibrant modern life; a small city with the culture and lifestyle of a large city; an Italian "non-touristy" city with the art, music, architecture and spectacular food of the best tourist destinations; a city at the cross-roads of northern Italy with its own well-developed sense of community.

Your favorite book?
My favorite book is Anthony Trollope's "Barchester Towers", but I would be hard pressed to turn my back on any other of Trollope's novels -- or George Eliot's -- or a long list of 19th century English writers.

Diversity and careers

Our recent poll gives me a chance to discuss two of SAIS Bologna's distinctive features.

The poll asked readers what they thought was best about SAIS Bologna. Here are the results:

Diverse student body - 36%

Career preparation - 26

Camaraderie - 18

Courses & faculty - 10

City of Bologna - 5

European perspective - 5

That means that more than one third of the respondents consider "diversity" to be SAIS Bologna's key asset.

"Diversity", of course, can mean different things to different people, and it can work in unpredictable ways.

(I have landed two jobs in my life in large part because I happened to be a "diverse" candidate. In one, I had an advantage over another candidate because I did not speak the language of the country where the job was located and so could ostensibly bring an impartial eye to a post that needed it. In another, I was a male applying for a job at a company where there were predominantly women, and the hiring managers wanted more gender balance. Some irony in both cases.)

I think the diversity that respondents to our poll were thinking of stems to a large extent from the range of nationalities. This year we have 43 nationalities (48 including dual passports), up from 34 last year and the largest number of nationalities in the Bologna Center's 57 years.


View SAIS Bologna 2011-12 class in a larger map

With 43 nationalities among 200 students, everyone is in a kind of minority. Even our U.S. students, who make up 44% of the class, are in a minority because they are outnumbered by non-Americans and, of course, are living in a foreign country.

This sense of being in a permanent minority is part of the SAIS Bologna learning experience. One is constantly confronted by different points of view. One's assumptions are regularly challenged. You cannot hide behind conventional wisdom because in such a place, it is neither conventional nor necessarily wisdom.

Students who thrive at SAIS enjoy learning from and about others. They are willing to give of themselves because they understand that others want to learn about them, too. It is one important reason why SAIS students are expected to participate in classes -- because so much of what is learned here comes from sharing experiences from such a wide range of backgrounds.

Of course with the diversity of nationalities comes a mix of religions, beliefs, languages and economic circumstances -- all part of the learning experience. Some of our students have been in the workforce for some years, others are coming directly from undergraduate study.

I'm delighted that our readers recognize that diversity is part and parcel of what makes SAIS Bologna special.

A word on careers: It is true that SAIS considers itself a professional school. Most of our graduates take up jobs after finishing a SAIS master's (but by no means all -- check out the number of SAIS professors who continued studying and got their Ph.Ds at SAIS). Who wants to invest in a graduate school without the prospect of landing a good job afterwards?

While SAIS does not guarantee graduates will get the job of their choice, our students do very well. We like to think that a SAIS education prepares students for a wide range of careers throughout their working lives. You'll see many SAIS graduates during their careers move between the public and private sectors, from one industry into another,  from a multilateral institution into an NGO.

If you are considering applying to SAIS Bologna, think of it as a long-term investment, one that will bring you benefits throughout your working years. Certainly our alumni see it that way.

Nelson Graves

Meeting our faculty: Prof. Carbonara

Emanuela Carbonara is teaching Microeconomics in pre-term at SAIS Bologna. Like Francesco Moro, Prof. Carbonara has provided us with her version of a Dewar's profile.

Your degrees?
Laurea (MA), Economics, University of Bologna
M.Phil, Economics, University of Oxford
Ph.D, Economics, Bocconi University, Milan
D.Phil, Economics, University of Oxford

Where have you taught?
Oxford University, University of Bologna, University of Amsterdam, University of Haifa

Anything special about SAIS Bologna?
I would say SAIS Bologna is a special place for many reasons. Let me just mention two. We are a real team: teachers and students working together, in a very friendly environment, for a common goal, supported by outstanding administrative staff. Plus the numerous opportunities to meet politicians, entrepreneurs, diplomats, and discuss with them on a peer to peer basis.

Anything special about Bologna?

Walking around in those medieval little streets, a unique experience. The idea that anything within the city center is walking distance. Bologna is not a huge town but it is so active on the cultural side, much better than many bigger cities.

  

Your favorite book?

Too many to recall them all. Recently, António Lobo Antune’s "The Inquisitor’s Manual" but a book that really left a mark is Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s "The Idiot".

Hobby?

Travelling and photography.

A quote

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." - Galileo Galilei

Students' first impressions

Giacomo, Sarita, Amal and Tessa
at the pre-term opening reception

There are no better ambassadors for SAIS Bologna than our students.

You -- our blog readers -- made it clear in your responses to our survey in June that you want to get to see and hear our students more often.

You don't need me, then, to tell you how students enrolled in pre-term are faring now that they have arrived in Bologna.

In this video, Jonas Brown, Ellen Duwe, Ishan Traxl and Niamh O'Sullivan share some of their first impressions with you.



If you are reading this post via email, you can see the video here.

Nelson Graves

Heat, angst and excitement -- a student's first impressions

Who said SAIS students are all the same?

Jamie Pleydell-Bouverie studied Theology as an undergraduate. SAIS's curriculum, heavy on economics and international relations, was not his bread and butter at Cambridge University. But he's taken the plunge at SAIS in hopes of one day working for an international organization promoting human rights. He has the United Nations, an NGO or the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in mind -- the kinds of organizations where SAIS students find work.

Jamie Pleydell-Bouverie and
Ilektra Tsakalidou
 on the first day of pre-term

(Speaking of being out of the box, some of our readers will remember that the SAIS Bologna Director, Kenneth Keller, is a chemical engineer by education. He teaches a course in science, technology and international relations here. The SAIS curriculum has evolved in many ways since it was founded in the aftermath of World War Two.)


SAIS accepts students from many different backgrounds and nationalities. We feel the diversity strengthens the experience.

Jamie describes himself as a keen sportsman -- he played rugby and cricket at Cambridge, and also skied -- and likes drama, both as an actor and a director. You think Jamie will have trouble finding a cricket pitch in Bologna? Think again. The Bologna Cricket Club has been going strong since 1983.

Here are some of Jamie's first impressions:



The last email I picked up before boarding my easyJet flight to Bologna -- whilst grumbling about my measly 20kg baggage allowance -- was from Nelson Graves, asking if I could write a short piece on my “first impressions” of Bologna. I therefore arrived with a heightened self-awareness of my immediate thoughts and hoping that I would instantly be struck by some profound reflections of this wonderful city.

Alas, not.

From the moment I stepped off the plane all I could think about was how hot it was. OK, I am English -- 15 degrees is usually pretty good for a barbecue -- but it is seriously hot in Bologna at the moment. Arriving in jeans wasn’t the brightest of ideas.

It does not take me long, however, to be struck by some slightly less prosaic impressions. Firstly, Bologna is a very friendly city. My taxi driver finds my completely inadequate mastery of even the most basic Italian phrases amusing rather than rude. This is definitely a good sign. In fact, all the Bolognesi I have come across so far seem to be warm, cheerful and very welcoming.

Secondly, there is the city itself. Bologna is extraordinarily beautiful, with stunning red-brick towers and buildings, fabulous piazzas and charming winding backstreets. The Bologna panorama, which some of the best student apartments have terrific view of, is a truly spectacular sight.

Apart from perpetual angst about being behind on my calculus DVDs, I have been nothing but excited and exhilarated about being in Bologna for the coming year. And having met a good number of my fellow SAIS students already, I get the sense that this sentiment is pretty universal.

Connecting to Bologna: "It keeps the Center very lively"

I've heard many explanations of why SAIS ended up in Bologna. There's no dispute that C. Grove Haines chose Italy because of his longstanding love of the country, and it is said he selected Bologna because of his close association with the then rettore ('Il Magnifico') of the University of Bologna.

There is doubtless more to it. One student wrote a titillating thesis several years back that linked the Bologna Center in its infancy to Cold War cloak-and-dagger intrigue.

But let's not go there today. Instead, imagine a U.S.-style graduate institution in an Italian city. What to do?

From the start, the Bologna Center has sought to knit ties to its host city. SAIS Bologna is unique for sure, but it has not sought to be an island unto itself. Haines himself and then his successors have recognized that to thrive, the Center needs to be an active and responsible member of the Bologna community. Think of the Center as a plant and Bologna as the soil.

In 1964, Luciano Finelli founded L'Associazione di studio et cultura italo-americana to strengthen ties between the medieval city and Americans living here. It organized cultural events and courses in American English that to this day are attended by Bolognesi and foreigners living in Bologna.

Twenty years later, Giuseppe Gazzoni-Frascara started L'Associazione Bologna - Johns Hopkins University. For 17 years the group provided the Bologna Center with grants and student scholarships.

Today, these two organizations are joined in the Associazione italo-americana 'Luciano Finelli'. The association is housed in the Bologna Center and attracts large numbers of citizens from outside SAIS to its wide-ranging cultural events and English courses.

I had a word with Association Director Lisa Gelhaus, who was born in Wisconsin and has lived in Bologna for more than 23 years. In the video below she talks about the Association's work, its plans for the coming year and its habit -- wake up, incoming students -- to hire SAIS Bologna students from time to time.

As Lisa says of the Association: "It creates a community."



Nelson Graves

SAIS Bologna Half a Century Ago: Back to the Future

"Here gather those who tomorrow will shape a new community among nations."

Those heady words topped the lead article in a magazine published more than four decades ago celebrating the Bologna Center's 10th birthday.

Forty-six years later, much -- and in some cases little -- has changed.

Like the city of Bologna highlighted over the decades by a leading U.S. newspaper, SAIS Bologna has retained many charms and attributes while evolving with the times.

For a glimpse into the past, check out this special edition of The Johns Hopkins Magazine from December 1964-January 1965.


The parents of some of our incoming students were barely out of diapers when the magazine was published. But if you are coming to SAIS Bologna this year or thinking of applying, take a peek at what came before.

The Bologna Center opened in February 1955 in borrowed rooms with 10 students and four (all male) professors. Within a decade it had grown to 82 students from 14 countries and 15 (still all male) faculty.

In 2011-12 we are expecting close to 200 students from more than 40 countries -- and with many women professors.

The magazine explains that SAIS DC and SAIS Bologna "grew in importance in the post-World War II period when the consolidation of new power blocs such as Western Europe, and the exigencies of the cold war and the nuclear age, demanded many more people trained in international economics, diplomacy, and the culture and history of various nations."

SAIS Bologna founder C. Grove Haines
and senior administrators

So without the cold war, is SAIS Bologna still relevant?

Consider SAIS's mission as defined in the magazine: "to prepare the best available candidates for careers in internationally-oriented areas of government, business, teaching, and research."

Something else seems not to have changed: "The Center's great contribution lies in its providing, for the European students, a radically novel academic atmosphere, and for the Americans, the chance to gain an intimate, on-the-spot, knowledge of Europe."

Students from other continents now join Europeans in seeking a U.S.-style educational experience with small classes and professors who put a premium on participation and engagement by students.

You should know that three of the contributors to the magazine carved out impressive careers. John Tuthill was U.S. ambassador to the European Communities when the publication was released and later ambassador to Brazil. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle was a leading French historian while well-known Franco-German academic and journalist Alfred Grosser taught politics at SAIS Bologna from 1955 until 1973.

Some of our readers may have seen and heard Pierre Hassner, who is pictured in the magazine article, in one of our recent blog posts. Can you say which one?

Finally, sharp-eyed SAIS Bologna alumnus Tom Tesluk (BC81/DC82) noticed that one of the most famous photographers ever, considered by many to be the father of photojournalism, snapped the pictures of the authors of the magazine articles -- Henri Cartier-Bresson.

-------------

With summer upon us, our readers, however loyal, are quite rightly cutting back their time in front of computers. Between now and mid-August, we will be running one planned post a week on Tuesdays and leave open the possibility of a post on Thursdays for bits and pieces. In July we'll highlight two award-winning pieces of work done at SAIS Bologna this past year, and we'll summarize the results of our recent survey.

If you feel we need to address an issue in the blog, be sure to send us your thoughts, either via the comment space on the blog or with an email to admissions@jhubc.it. Your input helps.

Nelson Graves

Plus ça change,...

... plus c'est la même chose.

Some of you may have noticed an article in the New York Times last week about Bologna. Entitled "36 Hours in Bologna," the special section takes the reader on a virtual tour of the city and offers a step-by-step travel plan for visiting the capital of the Emilia Romagna region.

Those of you who will be moving here to study next year will want to read the section. No need to memorize the addresses if you have a printer or can save the link.

As I trawled for last week's article, I noticed that the New York Times had run a special section on Bologna three years ago. It was as upbeat as last week's about the city and offered a very different itinerary. This, too, is worth reading.

So I was quite amused when, thumbing through a guidebook that I bought 30 years ago, I found a newspaper clipping, yellow with age, with a full-page article on Bologna from ... the New York Times.

As some readers know, I attended SAIS Bologna in that era. I had purchased the guide before arriving here, and someone had taken the trouble to send me the article -- headlined "What's Doing in Bologna" -- before my arrival. I can't quite recall who sent me the article. Is that my sister's handwriting filling in some missing words? These are the kinds of details one forgets after three decades.

Don't feel you need to read the article from 1981. But if you're as nostalgic as I am or just like history, here is a copy. My apologies for the quality of the reproduction. If you want to read it, you will have to rotate the view or else you'll put your neck out of joint.

The author's 'permesso di soggiorno'
from 1981

Despite the passage of three decades, certain things remain immutable in the New York newspaper's view of Bologna. You'll hear other visitors mention the same: arcades, gastronomy, left-leaning politics, the student population, the fact Bologna remains off the tourists' well-beaten path, tortellini in brodo, le Due Torri, Santo Stefano, Piazza Maggiore.

Some things have changed. Piazza Maggiore remains packed at almost all hours -- but it is no longer almost exclusively men discussing politics and calcio. Some hotels have collected dust while others have become fashionable.

One surprise: it seems that as the number of restaurants has grown and there is a bigger selection, in some cases meals are no more expensive today, even in unadjusted terms, than they were 30 years ago.

Of course, on my limited student budget, I was not able to dine in Bologna's restaurants in 1981-82. To be honest, it didn't spoil my year one bit.

Nelson Graves

Tomorrow: DVDs, odds & ends ahead of 2011-12

Weekly quiz

The 2011-12 SAIS Bologna class is starting to come together. The final deadline for U.S. candidates to send in their acceptances is May 1. Already we know the contours of that contingent -- we're excited by the diversity and quality of the candidates who will be coming.

Those who applied through the Bologna Admissions Office -- so the non-U.S. candidates who want to start their SAIS degree on the Italy campus -- have until May 16 to matriculate. To matriculate online and reserve your spot, go here. Thanks to those who have enrolled early as it allows us to get a head start on organizing the next few months and also is a favor to anyone on the wait list.

For the entire admissions packet, non-U.S. candidates can go here. There you can find among other documents the 2011-12 academic calendar, details on pre-term, the student guide book and information on a UniCredit loan for citizens of EU member states.

We are looking forward to Open House at the Bologna Center on May 5&6. For a schedule of the event and a registration form, click here. This is a good way to get to know the Center, its current students and faculty, and to meet some of next year's students as well. Of course we appreciate early registrations as it makes planning easier. If you have any questions about the event, please contact Amina or me.

On to the quiz.

Last week our question proved a real stumper until we added a useful hint. I hope this week's is challenging but achievable -- a bit like an academic course load.

The question: Who is the patron saint at the end of the world's longest arcade?

Nelson Graves

Tour of Bologna - Part II

Below is the second and final part of our brief tour of Bologna. It is meant to give those of you who have never been here a feel of the city that has been home to SAIS Bologna since it was started 56 years ago.

Here is a map showing the monuments and places that are identified with captions in yesterday's and today's segments:


View A Tour of Bologna in a larger map

As I note in the video and as is clear from the map, this tour is by no means comprehensive. Compared to a thorough tour, it is no more than a snack to a main dish. But it may give you a taste of the open air museum that is Bologna. Which, after all, is one of Italy's gastronomic capitals.



Tomorrow: weekly quiz

Nelson Graves

Tour of Bologna - Part I

Our readers have seen SAIS Bologna and SAIS DC. Time, now, to show you the city of Bologna.

I took advantage of the Easter holiday at the Bologna Center to shoot some video of this medieval city that has been host to the Center for 56 years.

A sunny spring day provided the backdrop. I toyed with the idea of adding a music sound track but decided it's best to let the city speak for itself. You may wonder how I got around the entire city center in a morning: by bike and on foot, of course.

There is so much to see in Bologna that I have had to split the video into two parts; we'll post Part II tomorrow. Even so, there is a great deal that I did not have time to tape.

Another time.



Nelson Graves

Weekly quiz

Before we get to the weekly quiz, an update on where we stand. The Bologna Center will be closed April 17-26. We will be checking email during that period, but if you do not hear from us quite as quickly as you normally do, don't worry. We will respond. 

Open House will take place on May 5&6. If you need a visa for Italy, please make sure you plan in advance. Getting a tourist visa is fairly straightforward, but sometimes it can be tricky. Make sure you contact us if you face any difficulties in obtaining your visa.

For candidates who applied to SAIS Bologna through the Bologna Admissions Office, the deadline for matriculation is May 16.

If you have not met the economics entry requirement, you will receive an email soon after April 27. As you know, we offer an online course over the summer  and the deadline to enroll is May 17. We know you'll meet the deadline! 

Now, on to the quiz:

What is the name of the art work in the center of the picture and where exactly is it located?

Picture by Elisabeth Mondl, BC 2011

Amina Abdiuahab

Spring at SAIS Bologna

It's that time of the year. Here's a little video, just for the fun of it. Enjoy.



Nelson Graves

"For me, it was a no-brainer"

Part of our challenge at Bologna Admissions is to show the SAIS program to those of you who do not live near enough to visit. There is only so much that can be captured on paper.

We have found that our students and alumni make outstanding ambassadors. They can relate to prospective candidates who ask themselves: What makes SAIS Bologna different? Would I fit in there? What would it be like to study there?

Chidiogo Akunyili

Below is a video of Chidiogo Akunyili, a first-year SAIS student at the Bologna Center. You may remember that we profiled Chidiogo a while back.

In the video, which is posted on YouTube and the SAIS Bologna website, Chidiogo speaks of her year at the Bologna Center. A Nigerian by birth, Chidiogo studied at the University of Pennsylvania before working for three years in Berlin and Beijing.

Her concentration at SAIS is International Relations. Not a surprising pick for someone who speaks five languages. English and Igbo are her native languages; she is fluent in French and proficient in Mandarin and German.

If you have a question of Chidiogo, feel free to send in a comment at the end of this post. She would enjoy getting back to you.



Tomorrow: A level playing field for interviews

Nelson Graves