Recent student comments:

"Exploring Rome with the expert advice of Wayne made culture wars an incredible experience.  Whether it was learning about gladiator battles in the Coliseum, the Roman Catholic Church in St. Peters, or throwing your coin into the Trevi Fountain wishing all three credit courses filling graduation requirements were this incredible, you get the full Roman experience with over 2000 years of history at your fingertips.  The amazing food and evenings eating gelato at the Coliseum topped off an incredible time learning and experiencing other cultures."

---Joey Goode

     Civil Engineering 

“Absolutely the best college experience I had! I stepped away from Culture Wars in Rome with many new friends, hundreds of memorable experiences, a wealth of knowledge about not only Rome, but the country of Italy, Christianity, and ancient paganism as well. When you learn about Rome, in Rome, you don't learn how modern civilization and religion began, you experience it, you live it. The fact that this is a Maymester course allowed me to study abroad and still graduate in four years from the College of Engineering. Most importantly, it allowed me to step outside engineering, into a realm of culture, art, religion, and history.”

---David Tovani

   Mechanical Engineering

"I quite possibly learned the most from Culture Wars than any other class I have taken in college. I knew absolutely nothing about Rome before I got there, and now I frequently see and recognize influences from Rome in our modern society almost daily. After being there for two weeks, you get to know the city so well under Prof. Ambler's guidance that it feels a little weird leaving. Plus, it's fun."

--- Jeff Wheeler

    Aerospace Engineering

Adventure, learning, memories, people, places, food, wine, culture, and much more! Wayne’s enthusiasm creates an incredible experience. Make friends and memories that will last a lifetime while learning to see the world in a whole new way.

Thanks!

--- Mike Records

     Civil Engineering

Culture Wars in Rome was the best humanities class I've ever taken!  It was an incredible experience to be able to learn the history on site, and the class taught me so much more than just the coursework.  I learned to become more independent, culturally and internationally aware, and made some great friends along the way.

--- Kristina Wang

     Aerospace Engineering

Going on the Culture Wars in Rome trip was the best decision I have made in college. It works great with engineer's hectic schedules and you learn so much about such a different subject than we are used to. I had never been able to really get into history and art before, but actually learning about the Coliseum while inside of it, the Roman Forum while standing in the ruins of an old church in the forum, and the Pantheon while standing next to the altar makes history come alive. Wayne is brilliant and enthusiastic about everything Italy, and he encourages us to explore the city while we are there. I would tell anyone thinking about the trip that they just need to go for it!

~Carly Smith

     Applied Math

“The Rome Culture Wars program was one of the best experiences I've ever had, not just in college, but in my whole life. I cannot imagine a better way to have learned and explored Rome than through this program. I am confident in saying that no one who participates in this program will regret their decision.”

---Ann Rizzuto

   Psychology

“The Culture Wars class was a really awesome experience, and it is held in one of the most historically significant locations on the planet.  Wayne has set up a really well organized program which includes on-site guest speakers, visits to basically all the points of interest in Rome, and some excellent food!  The fact that Wayne carefully selects the students also provides a great group of people who want to actively participate.  My only regret is that I cannot do it over again.”

---Lee Jasper

   Senior Aerospace Engineering

"A maymester class in Rome with Wayne is an indescribable life experience capable of fostering as much personal growth as an entire 4 years at university.  Do not let this invaluable opportunity escape you.  Instead, cultivate friendships, knowledge, and charisma in the edgy and historic epicenter of Italy, where everything is as sprightly as strobe lights on a dance floor (minus the nuns, who are cool too)."

---Jon Wesley Lafferty

   Philosophy

"Culture Wars in Rome, led by Professor Ambler, is one of the most stimulating, life-changing, and exciting international opportunities that any University can offer. The program is perfect for students seeking a taste of international academics, fun, and an introduction to the global community."

--- Peter Evans

    Medieval and Roman History

"From standing within some of the world’s most renown structures such as the Colosseum and the Pantheon to throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain, this trip captures Italian fun, education, and most importantly – Wayne. But, besides the best gelato in world, an intense, competitive scavenger hunt, and learning the vast cultural evolution of Roman history, you might just learn how to perceive a new place in a whole new light."

--- Yevgeniy (Jenya) Kaufman

     Civil Engineering

"A phenomenal, eplo"

--Alex Fosdick

   Electrical Engineering 

Student Comments from our very first year, 2005

Six months after we returned from Rome, I asked students who participated on the trip to tell me 1) how they would recommend the trip to other students (if they would), and 2) what I should do differently the second time around. All of the answers I received are below. (I helped the spelling out a little but made no other changes). Many of the suggestions have since been incorporated into the program.

1) Recommending the Trip: 

• Going to Rome was truly the highlight of my college career.  From the variety of sites scheduled that we visited, supplemented by morning and noon lectures, readings, and experiential field trips, while having the opportunity of living right there in the city with both a rich past and a bright future, the Rome Humanities program was exactly what I had hoped my study abroad experience would be.

   

• The Humanities abroad for engineers program allows you to disconnect from the small bubble life which is engineering. Student life can often shrink into a bland routine. This course thrusts you back into humanity, sometimes literally as you will see at the Porta Portese. Rome is indeed a living shrine to western culture and one ought to go pay homage at some point. So get out of the library and treat yourself to gelato. Oh, and of course engineers receive three upper division humanities credits, how very sensible - now you engineers have to go!

   

• It is great to hear from you and I am happy to see that you are teaching the course again. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I don’t think I ever really thanked you for accepting me on the program.  Thank You!!! I benefited from so many aspects of the course and from you and your colleagues knowledge of this history, architecture and events that shaped Rome. Being there was amazing and I wish the course had been longer.

   

• I want to commend you on your impressive skills in picking the people for the class.  I like how serious you were in the interviews about the course being a learning experience. I think it weeded a lot of people out who may have been going for the wrong reasons.  I felt the group we had, including yourself and Joy, fit together perfectly. I could not have put together a better group of people to spend that time with and I felt that you really did a great job in finding the right people.  Joy was also great to have along and if she cannot make it next year I hope you can find someone a lot like her.

   

• Culture Wars in Rome was nothing short of amazing! I know it may seem that Wayne is a little too excited about the course right now but once you are in Rome and able to discover the culture, history, and architecture of the Roman’s first-hand like he has, you will know why he is so thrilled to be doing this. Wayne’s knowledge combined with that of his friends and colleagues in Rome really makes this course an everlasting experience you will find to be priceless.

   

• Thank you for the good times and memories we found in Rome…

   

• A wonderful eye-opening experience, where your interests are invoked.

   

• Enjoy an inside view of one of the oldest cities in the world.

   

• It was a trip of a lifetime, honestly, I've made the best friends through this trip than I have in all my years at CU.  I was able to see things that I never imagined I would get the opportunity to stand in front of or touch.

   

• This was the highlight of my college career at CU!  Rome is an incredibly rich city, and there was so much to discover!  Learning about Rome's history while enjoying authentic Roman pizza and culture was an unforgettable experience.  Although the trip seemed to fly by, I learned more in those two weeks than I have learned in several of my semester-long courses.  Actually understanding the history behind the famous Roman architecture and art made me appreciate the beauty of culture and importance of knowledge of the past.

   

• Culture Wars was a once in a lifetime experience.  It was my first trip to Europe and I can hardly wait to go back; although Rome won't be the same without Wayne, Joy and my 20-or-so other traveling companions!

   

• Thanks again for an amazing class and trip to Rome!  I hope all is well!

   

• Good luck with Culture Wars in 2006!  I wish I could go again because I had such a great time!

2) Proposed Changes:

• If you keep the group projects, have the groups meet before leaving for Rome. It would be so much easier and productive to go to Rome with an idea of what you will be focusing on within your time period.  [Note: the group projects have since become individual projects.]

   

• Honestly, I would not change much about the course.  The reading packet was very useful but I think it may have been a bit too long or maybe just a little overwhelming which was a little discouraging at times.  Don’t get me wrong, all of the information was very useful and it definitely served its purpose both during the course and also for years to come when you want to refer back to something but from what I got from many of my fellow students was that they thought it was a bit too exhausting and therefore they didn’t read a lot of what was in there.  The only way I see to remedy this problem would be to a) require that the students include something from the packet in their daily assignments to make sure they are learning from it and at least using it or b) narrow down the information to highlight the most important aspects of each subject in there. To do this, you may include some kind of outline either in or after the table of contents so the students can refer to it and then know where to go to in the readings to get the specifics. I know that would be a lot of work but it may help students get more out of the reading packet.  The only other suggestion I have is to make the three separate groups work together more so everyone can learn more about the three Rome’s.  I feel like the students would benefit more if they could see what the other groups were working on because we didn’t really have time to look at the other group’s projects before the trip was over. A possible solution to this might be to take a couple of people from each of the three separate groups and rotate them through the other groups on certain days so they can get a feeling of the other Rome’s. This would also help the students in the end when they are comparing and contrasting the Culture Wars in Rome. That’s it!

   

• As for changing the course, I can truly say that nothing, I repeat, nothing needs to change!!!!  It was a wonderful experience and I cannot think of anything negative about it.... some ideas that you may want to add, however, might be to have a little language overview at the very beginning of the trip and maybe you could have one night (where it would normally be free time) and show an Italian movie- one of the many we learned about. I think it would be a fun addition.

   

• The suggestion that I have is to only have one group meal per day...(too much food). Sometimes it was too much food, but I felt like I had to eat it because it was there.

   

• To answer your question:

  I would have liked to have reading that was more focused and linked to what we learned each day.  I got lost and confused with some of the readings, but I would have liked to have more explanation or more references to what I was reading.  Also, a more focused final project.  I enjoyed the freedom we were given to choose whatever topic we wanted to discuss, but I also felt a bit overwhelmed because we had learned so much, I didn't even know where to begin and what to include or leave out.

   

• I'm so glad to hear that you are doing the trip again next year.  Gosh, the only thing I can think of to change is making the assignments a little more clear and don't allow kids to slack because then kids like me won't turn them in on time. I'm also kind of sad that we didn't get to tour the Coliseum as a group.