Eckerd College junior Emmi Elmaleh (pictured above) is using a Gilman-McCain Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State to study international business at Florence University in Italy. Photo courtesy of Emmi Elmaleh ’27
Every morning five days a week, Eckerd College junior Emmaline Elmaleh walks from her apartment to her classes at the Florence University of the Arts in Italy.
That, in itself, is an education. “I pass by the Duomo di Firenze [Florence Cathedral] every day when I walk to class,” she said recently. “It’s just incredible how much history there is on the streets I’m walking. This is the birthplace of the Renaissance. Leonardo di Vinci painted the Mona Lisa a couple of blocks from the school.”
An international business and marketing student from Tampa, Emmaline is spending fall semester in Florence, thanks to a prestigious Gilman-McCain Scholarship.
Created under the State Department’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, the John S. McCain International Scholarship for Military Families is available to eligible students enrolled at accredited U.S. colleges and universities who receive any type of Title IV federal financial aid. The scholarship provides $5,000 awards for undergraduate child and spousal dependents of active or activated United States military personnel to support study or internship abroad in credit-bearing programs. Emmaline’s father is in the U.S. Army Reserves.
Emmi says she has been as dedicated to seeing Italy as she has been to excelling in her classes.
“Ever since I’ve been a business major, I’ve been interested in learning about different cultures and their businesses,” she says. “I went to Italy as a high school student, and I took Italian for three years in high school. I’ve just been very interested in the whole idea of Italy—the architecture, the food, the way of life. I chose Florence University because they had the business programs I was looking for.”
Being able to study in Florence has provided Emmi opportunities she could only imagine.
““This will help me get an inside view of international businesses,” she says.
Along with the Gilman-McCain Scholarship, Emmaline received funding from the Eckerd College Study Abroad program and a Pell Grant. She also is a member of Eckerd’s Marketing and Communications team.
Emmaline and travel seem to show up at the same time. Since middle school, she has traveled several times with her family to Europe, and her family has hosted exchange students in their home. Last January, Emmaline and 15 other Eckerd students journeyed to Australia as part of an Eckerd Winter Term business course.
Since arriving in Florence in late August, Emmaline has taken day trips to Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera, Siena, Bologna, Venice and Verona. “I really enjoy learning how to live in a culture that’s different from the one you know,” she says. “You get to interact with the locals every day and learn their customs.
