The Hidden Class of 2020: Marist Italy BA Students Part with Florence
Christopher ‘Kip’ Gilbert ‘20 knows the Florence Amerigo Vespucci Airport as well as any Florentine does, where getting through security often falls short of 20 minutes.
But on March 4, Gilbert saw a sea change in the nature of famously quaint Tuscan airport. “There were hundreds of American students, tourists, and people yelling at each other — just trying to get out,” he said. “You could tell people were just scared.”
Gilbert boarded his flight amid sorrows of bringing his 3-year tenure as a Marist Italy Bachelor of Arts student to an abrupt end. He’d fly back to his home in Maine, only about a week after Italy was declared a COVID-19 Level 3 advisory from the CDC.
Christopher Gilbert spent three of his four years at Marist in the Marist Italy/LdM Bachelors of the Arts program. He contracted the coronavirus shortly after his return home in the US. Source: Christopher Gilbert
Gilbert permanently transferred to Marist Italy from the Poughkeepsie campus during his sophomore year in 2017, and he’s felt more and more like a local every day since. Come May, he would graduate with a degree in global marketing, and partake in a small graduation ceremony on the outskirts of Florence alongside the 11 other graduates of the Marist Italy Class of 2020.
For Gilbert, the Italian lifestyle lent much more than knowledge of Michelangelo’s work and baroque architecture. Spending springtime days in the Boboli Gardens and nights dancing in restaurants at closing time defined “la dolce vita.” But on Feb. 29, everything changed — Marist suspended all programming for the remainder of Spring 2020, sending 163 students home to complete their coursework online.
“It’s an experience that I am really, really upset was cut short,” Gilbert said. “Marist Italy is something that is really special, and I wish more people could partake in it. The fundamentals to life is a big part of education that you learn there, it’s independence.”
Gilbert at the Florence airport. Source: Christopher Gilbert
According to Gilbert, spending three years in a study-abroad-hub like Florence teaches lessons that are impossible to convey in a classroom. Semester students come in and out, and some grow to love Italian way, while others find that the city isn’t for them. “I worked really hard to learn the language, the customs, to assimilate — I always tell people, I’ve had the best days of my life in Florence and I’ve had the worst days of my life,” Gilbert said. “I have lived there for three years, and I am still a foreigner there in some ways.”
All of a sudden, Gilbert was on his flight home. He overheard a conversation between two American college women, sitting next to one another in economy class recounting the abroad experiences that they didn’t get to frankly, experience. “I just remember thinking to myself, they did not see Florence — and I was just feeling bad for them. I felt really sad for them, which gave me a reality check that I had three wonderful years in the city.”
In the US, he would return to his parents, both over the age of 70, to reflect on the fate of a city he had grown to love dearly. He spent his initial 14-day self-quarantine in a hotel outside of the Boston airport in order to avoid risking the health of his family members.
But just two days before his quarantine would end — Gilbert began showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus. It began with chest pains and a consistent cough, and he figured it was part of normal fatigue after long days of traveling. He first went to the hospital on March 21 and was labeled a presumptive case, returned to his hotel to bear the symptoms in his room.
According to Gilbert, spending three years in a study-abroad-hub like Florence teaches lessons that are impossible to convey in a classroom. Source: Christopher Gilbert
The symptoms worsened, and Gilbert checked into York Hospital in Maine on March 24 to be diagnosed with COVID-19. “Right now, even speaking to you, I’m kind of out of breath,” Gilbert said in an April 8 phone call with the Marist Circle.
“There were hundreds of American students, tourists, and people yelling at each other — just trying to get out,”
“Walking into the hospital here, I was the only person under 50 — I was thinking of all the older people, and then I lost all self pity,” said the 22-year-old. “My next thought was, why am I here? I felt guilty for taking up a hospital bed. It got to a point where I couldn't breathe on my own and I needed oxygen.”
Now, Gilbert is fully recovered and living at home, but is still grappling with the situation.
Gilbert described the Maine hospital to be quiet and largely different from the “warzones” in New York and New Jersey. “The only sounds you could hear were the ventilators going. It was scary, not something I would wish upon my worst enemy.”
Back in Dubai, For Now
Thea Moussa ‘20 was drawn to Marist Italy for its renown art restoration program. She packed her bags to spend four years studying the subject at its root.
But when she received the news that Marist Italy was suspending all programming, Moussa realized that stakes were incredibly high. She would return to her family’s home in Dubai, but since she is a Lebanese citizen — she needed a visa, and she needed it fast.
“Leaving was kind of a mess, because I wanted to come to Dubai and be with my family — I needed a visa and in order to get it, and I had to renew my passport in Lebanon and then go back to Dubai,” Moussa said. “And then, I found out they had locked flights.”
Thea Moussa in front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as the Duomo. Source: Thea Moussa
Moussa contacted the Lebanese embassy to get a visa and got on the first train to Rome. “I just booked the first flight to Dubai. All of this was in three or four days, I packed everything in a rush and came here,” she said. “For certain international students, it is much harder to get a visa. Being Lebanese, if I lose my visa, I can become a clandestine.”
She arrived home safely and healthily, and tested negative for COVID-19 at the airport. Dubai was on lockdown upon her arrival, and her 14-day self-quarantine was just beginning.
“I remember going to the immigrations office asking to see if there was any way I can stay, or find a job to get a work visa — but I didn’t have enough time to work everything out.”
Returning home to Dubai for post-graduation work was never part of her plan. “I try not to think of it too much because I don’t know what’s next,” said the triple major in art restoration, art history and studio art.
Moussa’s plan was to stay in Italy and complete an internship this spring to lead to a full-time job in the Florentine art industry. Her study-abroad permit of stay would not allow for her to continue her life in Italy without Marist Italy and Lorenzo de Medici’s sponsorship.
Thea Moussa standing beside the Arno River that runs through the city of Florence. Source: Thea Moussa
“I remember going to the immigrations office asking to see if there was any way I can stay, or find a job to get a work visa — but I didn’t have enough time to work everything out,” Moussa said. With the COVID-19 economy, it was nearly impossible to find a quick job for a work visa.
“I think the Marist Italy program right now is more oriented to students who want to study in Italy for a short period of time, and then go live back in the States,” Moussa said. “They don’t really prepare you for a life in Italy in general.”
Now, Moussa is looking at Italian graduate programs and jobs with hopes to return back. “I can't really do anything, since everything is paused for this period of time. It is stressful not to know what is coming next.”
Four Years in Florence
In late Feb., Gilbert felt an unusual sympathy for the city he called home. “It wasn't nearly as bad as it is now, but you could feel it in the air, that something really bad was going to happen,” he said.
Gilbert spent a lot of time working in Milan during his years in Italy. Source: Christopher Gilbert
It began with hand sanitizer and masks fleeing the store shelves. The cobblestone streets turned quiet, and the city changed before his eyes. Waves of semester-abroad students received word that they’d have the choice to leave.
His sympathy was paired with initial denial. He built a life in Florence, and it was about to be swept from beneath his feet. “The last week of February, we were being self-informed. We kept our eye on it and tried to stay as blissfully ignorant towards it, but we saw the city changing. The BAs were the last to leave,” Gilbert said. “We were kind of holding out as long as we could.”
He spent his last few days stopping by every restaurant and brick-and-mortar to give his best to the owners and employees. “These people weren't just waiters but really close, good friends of mine. We knew the situation was getting worse, and it just kind of came to the point where I would hug my friends and we would look each other in the eye and say ‘Good luck.’”
Source: Christopher Gilbert
Gilbert was in the process of applying to American law schools when he left. “I have a place to stay when I get back to America after losing my jobs in Italy. I wasn't as concerned for myself as I was for the Florentine people,” Gilbert said.
Their friends boarded flights home day by day. Gilbert said his goodbyes as best he could, spending his last night at the same restaurant he had planned to dine in on his commencement evening.
The Marist Italy BA graduation ceremony is a small, traditional event in the outskirts of Florence. A professor speaks on behalf of each individual graduate, and everyone in the room knows one another.
“From the Marist community itself, we feel very separated. We just felt like the Marist Poughkeepsie campus didn’t care — but we see with President Murray how much he really cares about us. He was the first person to reach out to the Marist Italy group, and he promised us we would have our graduation.”
“I really would like people to understand that it's so much more than going there to study, it’s rebuilding your life, and it’s important that we get that closure,” Gilbert said. “Their commitment to allow us to have that ceremony which is TBA, maybe in the summer, next spring who knows, I think that is the most important thing for us.”
“They are a unique group of students, they are connected to Marist but in a different way than the people who spent three and half or four years along the banks of the Hudson here,” said President Dennis Murray.
Although President Murray never personally attended the Marist Italy graduation ceremony on the outskirts of Florence, he said he recognizes its meaning to the community members. “They are very much as part of the Marist community as any graduate, so when I made the commitment to postpone the graduation here, we wanted to make sure they had the same message over there,” President Murray said.
“I will do my best to go back. You learn so much more from just being there.”
If any graduating Marist Italy student is back in the States during the postponed Poughkeepsie campus graduation, President Murray said they are welcome to join the ceremony here, instead or in addition to their Italian ceremony. “They can do both if they wanted,” he said.
For both Gilbert and Moussa, going back to Italy for graduation is only one piece of the rest of their Florentine stories. “I will do my best to go back. You learn so much more from just being there,” Moussa said.
“Life will continue, and it will be beautiful, and we will get our chance to walk,” Gilbert said. “My time there hasn't ended yet, and when I do, I will go back with a fresh set of eyes and a deeper appreciation for the city.”