The year was 1963. A group of American students — from Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara — gathered at the University of Padova in Italy for a yearlong study-abroad program. Classes in Italian. Train rides to Venice. Living with Italian students. The stuff college memories are made of.
More than a half-century later, three members of that group have created the Amici de Padova scholarship so that a Berkeley student in need can experience the beauty and culture of Italy — and make their own memories.
“It wasn’t just the classroom learning,” says Ruth Scott ’65, M.B.A. ’69, reflecting on the experience. “It was the immersion in a different language, a different culture, and the friendships made that have lasted a lifetime.”
Jane Vaden ’65 and Santa Barbara alumna Pamela Thames — two of those students — also contributed to the scholarship fund. A Los Angeles attorney, Scott speaks with pride about her year at the University of Padova, which has counted Copernicus and Galileo among its faculty. Though Padova is technically no longer part of Berkeley’s international program, the trio decided to set up the fund anyway. In the spirit of international learning, the scholarship can also be offered to a Padova student who wants to experience Berkeley.
“Not only does this gift reflect the power of international travel, it also reflects Berkeley’s goals to promote excellence in undergraduate education and to be a truly global university," says Richard Russo, Berkeley’s dean of summer sessions, study abroad, and lifelong learning.
To mark the 50th anniversary of their experience, members of the 1963 group returned to Padova in 2013.
“The trip,” Scott says, “reminded me of a quote by Mark Twain — ‘Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.’”
