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Siena School for Liberal Arts (Outgoing Program)

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  • Locations: Siena, Italy
  • Program Terms: Fall, Spring
  • Homepage: Click to visit
  • Restrictions: Swarthmore applicants only
Fact Sheet:
Fact Sheet:
Housing Options: Apartment, Homestay GPA requirement: 2.5
Language of Instruction: English, Italian Academic Program Components: Study Abroad
Areas of Study: Anthropology, Art, Art History, Creative Writing, Culture, Deaf Studies, Environmental Studies, Food Technology and Management, History, Italian, Literature, Medieval Studies, Music, Political Science, Sustainability Program Type: Special Affiliation
Program Description:

Siena School of Liberal ArtsSiena

The Siena School of Liberal Arts is a cultural institute which is committed to running semester and summer study abroad programs where our students become a vital part of our ongoing cultural and social work. It offers a unique study abroad experience in one of the oldest and most beautiful university towns in Italy.
We are also the only school in Europe to offer deaf studies and sign language as part of its semester and summer curriculum.
 

Location

The Siena School Building is located in Castelvecchio, a beautiful, central medieval neighborhood near the Cathedral and Piazza del Campo.

The school is housed on the top floor of the Istituto Pendola, a beautiful Medieval building restored in the 19th-century and originally set up to house one of the most famous residential Schools for the Deaf in Europe. Our recently renovated facilities include modern classrooms with a/v equipment, a spacious, luminous fine arts studio, a darkroom, a library, modern restrooms, student lounge and kitchen.

Thanks to our location, we enjoy stunning views of ancient Siena below us and the verdant Tuscan countryside beyond the city gates.

The Istituto Pendola

The School for the Deaf was founded by father Tommaso Pendola in 1836 as part of a series of initiatives aimed at catering to the needs of the most disadvantaged in society.

Stanislao Grottanelli de Santi – ancestor of Miriam Grottanelli de Santi, the Director and founder of Siena School for Liberal Arts – was Pendola’s friend and became instrumental in the founding of the School. 

Academics


Through a unique combination of classroom study, intensive programs, fieldwork, service-learning, workshops and weekend activities, the Siena School fosters a hands-on engagement with aspects of Italian life usually inaccessible to the visitor.

The Siena School is organized into 5 Academic Tracks: Deaf Studies, Italian Studies, Liberal Arts(including Studio Art), Museum Studies, and Sustainability.

Students choose a track when applying for our programs. Each track includes Italian language and different core courses. Each track offers 4-month semester courses, ranging from 45 to 60 contact hrs. The school is active throughout the year, offering a Spring and Fall semester and a Summer term. We’re also pleased to arrange customized programs and to organize programs in joint venture with other institutions.

The Siena School is a Study Abroad provider which collaborates with many North American partner institutions.

Credit transfer is processed in agreement with our partner colleges in the US. For those cases in which an agreement with a college/university is not yet in place, it is always possible to go through our School of Record.
All of our classes are small and we guarantee a high degree of interaction between teachers and students. We offer our students the possibility of enrolling in a series of more traditional, lecture-based courses or of experiencing Community-Based Learning in our Internship Program in Art and/or Social Work. Students involved in our Sustainability Track have opportunities to partecipate in internship working on in local Farm, Restaurant or in journalism related to Sustainability.

Our Service Learning component aims to engage our students further with the community in Siena. We are involved in many English enrichment programs with elementary students, a local soupkitchen and foodbank, and a local nursing home. We encourage our students to be as independent as possible and we are very open to students own interests. If there is anything that our students wish we will do our best in finding new and available opportunities.

Through the Siena School, you will go beyond merely observing the life of this beautiful city; you will be drawn into dialogue with the environment that surrounds you. Our classes provide the instruments and insight you need to make a connection and leave a mark, be it through what you say, write, create or perform. In this way you are not a mere visitor, but a real contributor to the life of the city. Studying at the Siena School means listening to all that Italy has to offer and giving back to our city as you become a contributing part of it.