I head a nonprofit startup in Davis called Reading Buddies. I decided to major in Italian for the faculty. While I love the language and truly enjoyed my time traveling and studying abroad in Florence, as a student, the faculty especially took their time to work with each student on their written work and conversation. In particular, Pr. Foscarini, Pr. Grossi and Pr. Heyer-Caput. My experience at UCD was very positive. I would advise an incoming UCD undergraduate to give it a try. Not all of life it providing you can excel at the hard classes. The Italian major allows you to enjoy diving into a particular concept (for me it was feminism in Berlusconi's Italy, or the themes in Dante's Inferno) without the fear of writing or thinking just how the professor wants you to. You have the opportunity to be creative in Italian, and it might surprise you how much you enjoy it.
