Welcome Back to Adventures at Franklin

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Ciao a tutti, and welcome back to Adventures at Franklin!

 We’re two months into the Fall semester here at Franklin University Switzerland, so I’ll do a brief recap of what you have missed so far:
  • We’ve welcomed 192 fresh new faces to campus!
  • Tutte Le Strade events are wrapping up. Students have had the chance to attend student-led trips to traipse around castles, sample local cuisine (gelato, obviously), and hike some nearby mountains.
  • FUS has hosted a variety of wonderful events and lectures, including the 3rd Edition of High-Level Symposium on Cybersecurity, and a screening at the Lugano Human Rights Film Festival.

Franklin professors, Dr. Alison Vogelaar and Dr. Fintan Hoey, speaking on a panel at the Lugano Human Rights Film Festival.
  • SGA has been putting on fun events for students, such as a nighttime boat cruise around Lake Lugano.
Students enjoy Lugano by night as the SGA sponsored boat cruise passes by Melide, a municipality alongside the lake.
  • The winter has come and gone already. By mid-September the students were bundling up as snow-capped mountains became visible from campus, but Lugano has already returned to summer weather! This week’s temperatures are averaging at about 21°C (70° F)

The blogging torch has been passed yet again, and I will be taking over for this academic year.

Here I am harvesting grapes in Sion, Switzerland earlier this semester. 


 My Name is Ember, and I will be keeping you updated on all things Franklin. A little bit about me: I am a fourth-year student majoring in International Management, and minoring in Communications and Media Studies. I am originally from Marin County, California (just north of San Francisco). Why did I come to Franklin? Well, I would have been crazy not to. I’ve always loved traveling, and have been coming to Europe since my childhood to visit relatives in nearby Italy, as well as Norway.

Franklin is a special place. Each classroom at FUS is essentially a Model UN session with the variety of nationalities being represented – it truly is an international education. Another thing I love: the learning does not stop once you leave the classroom. In Lugano, we are constantly surrounded by culture, languages, and history; plus, you can jet off to Italy at a moment’s notice. Studying abroad is most certainly a risk worth taking, and is the most rewarding decision I have made thus far.


 I spent last semester studying abroad (from studying abroad…) in Gold Coast, Australia. As much as I enjoyed my time in the Southern Hemisphere, and my 10-month-long summer, I am thrilled to be back in Switzerland. There are mountains to be hiked, cheese and chocolate to be eaten, and Academic Travels to be attended.


 Speaking of Academic Travel, students will begin departing for their journeys as early as this Friday, October 20th. I’ll be heading off to Iceland: The Land of Fire and Ice. In this Environment Studies class, taught by Professor Brack Hale, we’ve been studying tourism as it relates to the environment. This week, in addition to studying for midterm exams, I’ll be packing up the warmest clothes I own, and hoping for some breathtaking Northern Lights shows – wish me luck!

 Stay tuned as I continue to post about exciting happenings here at Franklin University Switzerland.

 Catch you next time,

 Ember


Casual views on the way downtown to buy groceries at Migros. 








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