3 Professors

3 Professors

I have a handful of favorite professors but I have never been able to assemble all of them in one place. I still haven’t brought them all together under one roof but yesterday I did have the pleasure of being in the company of two of my favorite professors.

Curt Rom (yes, his surname sounds just like this lovely city) is in Roma as part of the Fulbright exchange to Italy, a very prestigious and competitive award which he has been granted. He was my very first academic professor at the UA (not that my studio courses were not academic, they were, but I classify them as studio as opposed to “academic” or what other more politically correct people might call “lecture” classes). I literally left SSA early on my very last day (thank you Barbara George), ran to class, and was still huffing and puffing when I walked into Curt’s classroom 30 minutes later. I entered the UA with a private school bias, having earned my first degree from a private Jesuit university. Between the caliber of instruction and the size of the class, I soon realized that being part of the Honors College at the UA was like being part of a private university. Curt always had high expectations and the students, from widely diverse areas of studies, were always engaged in the lively discussions.

Another of my other favorite professors is Davide Vitali, our host in Roma and the director of the Rome Study Center. He is an architect by training, fluent in at least three languages—more articulate in English than most native speakers I know, including myself, and one of the most gracious gentlemen I’ve ever met. He was my studio professor in Rome three years ago. Like Curt, he expected the best of me. Although my program had prepared me pretty well for the work I was to do in Rome, I was a very insecure design student for the first month or so. Imagine being the only 2nd year ID student in the same studio as 4th year architecture students! However, a good professor knows how to build confidence in his students, and Davide’s encouragement and instruction enabled me to hold my own with the architecture students. While I didn’t take Davide’s course on architecture in the city, I joined the other students on site visits and learned so much about both the history and the principles of design.

One of the advantages of being a non-traditional student is that once the semester ends and the grades are submitted, I can return to my default status as a faculty wife where my professors can become my personal friends. Bill and I are very lucky to have friends like Curt and Davide. Furthermore, I like it when friends like friends. So what could be better than enjoying an afternoon with friends, especially in Roma!