Learning outside the classroom

As we've said before, the Bologna Center is fundamentally an academic program, but much learning happens outside the classroom. The Center attracts a large number of guests every year. Some come for a day to deliver a single lecture; others offer seminar series that can span several days or weeks. Speakers come from different fields and backgrounds, exposing students to a variety of viewpoints and specializations. Today our guest writer is Maria Kalina Oroschakoff. Kalina is a current student and an avid participant in the guest lectures and seminar series. Amina Abdiuahab

What do Kenneth Waltz, Gary Sick, Romano Prodi, Wolfgang Ischinger, Lloyd Minor, Mario Draghi, Fawaz A. Gerges and Josef Joffe have in common?


Each of them has come to the Bologna Center this year to give lectures or whole seminar series. They came for us. We did not have to share these speakers with 200 or 300 other listeners whom we did not know. These experts and policy makers came to speak to the Bologna Center and primarily for students.

Kenneth Waltz
 at SAIS Bologna

Since the audience is made up of  fellow students, teachers and staff, you are more comfortable and confident asking questions and engaging with the speakers. The Q&A sessions are an integral part of every lecture and often generate the real debates. Students have priority when it comes to asking questions. When ECB Governing Council member Mario Draghi came, the audience included many guests from outside the Center, but students were given the first crack at questions.


The setting allows personal contact with speakers, who are generally easy to approach after their talks for further questions. Some stay on for drinks at Giulio's bar. Some conversations can lead to long-term contacts and even internships opportunities.

Maria Kalina Oroschakoff
BC Class of 2011

Speakers are often willing to share their thoughts about their career path in more private settings. When Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations, came to the Center last autumn, he met with a small group of students to discuss his professional experience and career path following his graduation from the Bologna Center.


The Guest Lectures and Seminar Series complement and broaden the academic curriculum. Speakers come from a broad spectrum of academic and professional backgrounds, offering food for thought for students pursuing any concentration: global climate change, political and social developments in Yemen, post-conflict state-building in Bosnia, the consequences of the global financial crisis. 


I look forward to lectures on the crisis of authoritarian regimes in North Africa, a round-table on East Asian regional integration and a lecture series on nuclear politics. And these are drawn from the events schedule just for this coming week.


Maria Kalina Oroschakoff

The SAIS Podium

The U.S. Treasury Secretary. A former Italian prime minister and European Commission president. A senior U.S. arms control negotiator. A veteran human rights lawyer.

This is not an unusual week at SAIS. But even routine weeks mean exceptional speakers.

A SAIS education is made up of many parts: classroom study, research, discussion with professors and fellow students, internships. One of the outstanding resources outside the classroom is the lineup of speakers who come to the SAIS podium. They include politicians, diplomats, academics, business leaders, representatives of advocacy groups.

Close-up exposure to these thought leaders is part and parcel of SAIS.

Take this week. U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, a SAIS alumnus, spoke on Wednesday at SAIS DC on U.S.-China economic relations -- a week before Chinese President Hu Jintao goes to Washington for a bilateral summit.



This evening Romano Prodi -- who served twice as Italian prime minister and also headed the European Commission -- will speak to students in Bologna.

Romano Prodi and SAIS Bologna Director Kenneth Keller
(file photo)

Just before Geithner spoke in Washington, Robert Einhorn, special advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for nonproliferation and arms control, held an informal discussion with students in Bologna. Einhorn is  in Europe to participate in meetings ahead of negotiations with Iran on nuclear issues.

Hours after Einhorn spoke, Bologna students had a chance to interact with William O'Neill, a lawyer specializing in humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. A director at the Social Science Research Council in New York, O'Neill has experience monitoring human rights in countries around the world including Kosovo, Rwanda and Haiti.

The list of speakers is too long to include here. You may recognize some of the names of speakers at SAIS Bologna this academic year: Kenneth Waltz, Gary Sick, Roberto Toscano, Thomas Stelzer, Luca di Montezemolo. For more information on SAIS Bologna speakers this year, click here.

Those who have spoken in Washington include John McCain, Melissa Hathaway, Amartya Sen and Stanley McChrystal. For recordings of recent SAIS DC speakers, click here.

Some of these speakers may make the rounds elsewhere. But SAIS offers a uniquely intimate setting that allows students to rub elbows with thought leaders and to pick their brains. When Thomas Stelzer, another SAIS alumnus and a senior U.N. official involved in climate negotiations, came to Bologna, he made sure to meet separately with our Austrian students before his main speech.

Sometimes it's pure fun. Between classes and speakers today, SAIS Bologna students were able to visit the Ferrari factory down the road in Maranello. Ferrari chairman Montezemolo was there to greet them.

Ferrari Chairman Montezemolo greets SAIS Bologna visitors

Tomorrow: Weekly quiz!

Nelson Graves