Fund Jaxon's Educational Journey Abroad in Rome, Italy!

Hello everyone! I am Jaxon Milam, and I am currently a sophomore at The Linsly School. I have the awesome opportunity to study abroad in Rome, Italy this summer for 4 weeks. I will be staying with a host family, taking daily classes to better my Italian, and exploring the city! This has been a dream of mine for a while now, and I am beyond excited for this amazing experience! I was fortunate to win a scholarship to cover a lot of the program cost! I still need to get my passport, buy my plane ticket, and of course have spending money, so I am starting this GoFundMe to offset some of that cost. I am attaching one of my essays that I wrote which was required in the application. Anything will help! I appreciate you all and will keep you updated on this journey with pictures and check-ins.

My Essay:

From going to CIEE’s High School Summer Abroad program, I hope to further my understanding of the world past where I live and have an opportunity to dive deeper into some of my interests. My top choice program is Italian Language and Culture in Rome, and I want to attend this program specifically because one of my favorite subjects in school is Latin, where we have extensively studied Ancient Rome’s history. Much of my time in and outside of school is dedicated to studying Latin, reading ancient Roman authors, and learning about Ancient Rome’s culture. Seeing how the world was back then and the many ways it has influenced the modern world is incredibly interesting to me, and I would love to explore what Rome has evolved into in the modern day. Latin eventually evolved into the Romance languages spoken across Europe and elsewhere in the world, and Italian is one of those languages, being a direct descendent of Latin and being spoken in Rome itself. Having spent so much time learning about Latin and its history, I would love an opportunity to explore its modern counterpart, seeing both the similarities in the language and culture and the changes that have taken place over time. Whenever I took Latin 1 in eighth grade, our textbook focused especially on the city of Pompeii. One of the example activities in the Italian Language and Culture in Rome program is getting to visit the excavations of Pompeii, which was buried in 79 A.D. by Mount Vesuvius. We would also get to visit Tivoli, another important Ancient Roman city, and visit Roman landmarks such as the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Visiting these places would help bring the things that I have learned about in my Latin classes alive, seeing the remnants of the civilization firsthand and seeing what the civilization has turned into. Alongside this, visiting Italy would help me explore the wonders that the world has to offer, getting a wider world view than what I have seen in the United States. I have always loved to travel, and I would love the opportunity to see what lies beyond my own country. I also have many friends that live in Europe and specifically Italy since my school is both a day and boarding school, and I would love to see what life is like in those countries and learn more about how they grew up. My third-choice program is Italian Language and Culture in Milan, and this would serve a similar purpose as studying in Rome, as Milan was also once an Ancient Roman city called Mediolanum. My second-choice program would be Aerospace Engineering in Toulouse, France, as I want to be an aerospace engineer when I grow up and have spent a lot of time learning and practicing astronomy with the Green Bank Observatory here in West Virginia. I would love to dive deeper into the industry that I will one day be a part of while experiencing the culture of a foreign country at the same time. In any program, I would gain the opportunity to explore more of the world and get a glimpse into the culture of another unique and beautiful country. In studying abroad, I would also get a chance to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself in a unique way, helping grow myself into a better and more educated person. Lastly, I will get the opportunity to dive deeper into the subjects I have a passion for, leading to an incredibly fulfilling and enjoyable experience.