CEA Student Life: Rome Staff

CEA believes it is very important to have a resident staff that works to ensure your well being and that of all CEA students. Our Program Director in Rome, Anna Felberbaum, and her staff will:

• Be available to assist you with any difficulties or questions that may arise during your program;
• Act as a liaison between you and the administration of the host institution;
• Help you make a smooth transition into Italian culture and educational system;
• Closely monitor your academic progress; and
• Organize a wide range of social and cultural activities.

Questions about the Rome staff? Email .

Meet the Rome Staff

Grayson Splane Campus Director, Italy	Anna Felberbaum Rome Director	Kevin Murphy Academic Dean - Italy
Dr. Vasiliky Kynourgiopoulou Assistant Academic Dean - Italy	Chiara Ortolani Academic Coordinator	Andrea Varese Housing Coordinator

Here's what Anna has to say about Rome

I wake up in a bad mood because I have to go and pay my gas and telephone bill. To do this I will have to stand in line at the post office for over an hour. I throw on my sweats and go treat myself (as I do every morning) to a cappuccino and cornetto alla crema. I walk into my local bar and Franco, the barman, yells a "Buongiorno Anna" and then "il solito?" (the usual?). I smile and nod; my bad mood slowly evaporating once surrounded by my Roman family of bartenders, butchers, dry cleaners and newspaper agents. You see, that’s Rome! Once you go into a bar or grocery store more than twice you are enveloped into their world and they never let go.

Just by doing something as simple as walking to the post office can take your breath or bad mood away, especially in the area of Trastevere where time seems to have stopped. There I can still find the shoe shiner who used to clean my grandfather’s shoes or the fish monger whose daughters used to baby-sit for me as a child. I can walk through the beautiful markets located in amazing piazzas with striking churches, fountains and buildings. And what I love most is that this is where the locals do their groceries, where I do my groceries, where all the CEA students can do their groceries.

However, along with its reassurances, Rome also offers you mystery and exhilaration. For while I can always be sure to run into the man who used to shine my grandfather’s shoes, I can also be sure that I will find a hidden treasure on a little side street that I had never seen before. I will then discover that it was built by Bernini or Michelangelo and I will feel as if I am the first person to have ever laid eyes on this unknown creation. All of a sudden, through the haze of discovery, I realize to my horror that the post office has closed and my bills have still to be paid.