Hello! My name is Katie Fulmer. I am a rising junior at the College studying Early Childhood Education. The study abroad program I am participating in is the Maymester CofC in Italy: Art Education. We will be going to the town of Reggio Emilia to learn about the preschools that follow the world-famous Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood learning.

I chose my program because I want to learn more about education, teaching, and how children learn. I also want to learn as much as I can to be the best educator possible after college. The Reggio Emilia approach to learning is primarily used for students up to 5 years old, so this is great for me to learn about as an Early Childhood Education major.

One of my goals is to learn more about the Reggio Emilia approach and how I can apply Reggio principles to my future classroom. Also, for my CofC foreign language requirement, I have taken Italian. I am looking forward to becoming more comfortable with the language through spending time in Italy.

Taking four semesters of Italian at CofC has allowed me to learn a lot about the culture and language before getting to Italy. Also, students in my program were required to read Working in the Reggio Way by Julianne Wurm before this trip. Reading this book has allowed me to come to Italy with good base knowledge about Reggio Emilia.