When it’s time for back-to-school shopping, students include textbooks, pens and paper on their lists. But some students add a plane ticket to that list. Some classes at the University require the students enrolled to travel to get credit. It may seem like a financial burden to some, but the students who have taken the classes say it’s worth it. “I feel that traveling really opens your eyes,” said Ben Mabee, landscape architecture senior. “It gives you a better perspective what we have here in Louisiana compared to the rest of the world.”Mabee said he highly recommends the classes that require travel. As a landscape architecture student, Mabee has been obligated to travel for three studio classes. His most notable destinations included Canada and California. “My favorite trip was to the West Coast,” Mabee said. “We flew to Seattle, took a bus to Vancouver, flew down to Portland and took vans to Oakland and Bakersfield.”Mabee said the group took the trip during the first week of school. “It was a precedent study for our design,” Mabee said. “We were supposed to apply what we learned and apply it to our work for the next year.”The group went to Nike headquarters in Seattle and studied downtown Vancouver.The trip cost about $1,100, but it didn’t include meals or leisure spending.”It was put on our fee bill so a scholarship could pay for it if we had one,” Mabee said. “Everyone was able to travel with us. No one was left behind.”Landscape architecture isn’t the only concentration that offers travel. A new class, Italian 4100, requires a trip to Rimini and Rome, Italy. The class is a study of Federico Fellini, a neorealist Italian filmmaker during the post-war period. The class isn’t linked to the Film and Media Arts class, FMA 4001, but it’s “highly recommended” that students take both classes.”Dr. [Patricia] Suchy teaches the film class, which teaches filmmaking techniques,” said Kevin Bongiorni, associate professor of French and Italian. “The idea is that students learn about Fellini’s cultural background from my class and learn the techniques of how he does what he does in Dr. Suchy’s class.”Bongiorni said he and Suchy wanted to combine the classes and then “integrate experience.””We will go to Italy during spring break,” Bongiorni said. “Students will visit the places in [Fellini’s films] then shoot films there.” When the students get back to the states, they will edit their films and turn in an essay about their experience.”It’s theory, then practice,” Bongiorni said. The program costs $900, which includes a hotel in Rimini, train fare to Rome and the cost of renting a luxury apartment in Rome. “But it doesn’t include airfare, food and other expenses,” Bongiorni said. “Once a student enrolls, they need to get a passport and a ticket.”Though this is the first year for this program, the class already has a waitlist.”We limited the class sizes to 12,” Bongiorni said. “Nine people signed up before spring scheduling started.”Bongiorni also directs the LSU in Paris program and established another program which links descendants of the founder of Arnaudville to Ubaye Valley in France. Every year, students travel to the Ubaye Valley after studying the founders of Arnaudville. Despite all his accomplishments, Bongiorni thinks highly of his most recent feat. “I think this is one of the most valuable parts of my career,” Bongiorni said. – – – -Contact Ashley Norsworthy at [email protected]