BY RHONDA JOHNSON
Lifestyles Editor, The Sentinel
Melissa Schwenk, Rochester, is studying in Italy this year through School Year Abroad.
The 16-year-old daughter of Timothy and Briget Schwenk, she is a junior at Culver Girls Academy.
Schwenk arrived in Rome, Italy, on Aug. 30.
"My first impression (of Italy) was that it was very beautiful and very hot," she wrote in an e-mail to The Sentinel. "Everyday I discover more about my new city."
She stayed in San Martino for three days before meeting her host family, who live two hours from Rome in Viterbo, where she is attending school. While there, she is studying Latin and Italian and has the option to take Greek.
Schwenk expects to do some sightseeing in other Italian cities and visit Greece. "I've never been out of the country before and wanted a new experience," she wrote.
At the academy, she participates in Dancevision, the campus dance group. She is also vice president of her Girl Scout troop, a member of Venture Crew and served as Computer Club president at the academy last year.
Schwenk applied to participate in the SYA program at the encouragement of her Latin teacher, she said. She returns home via Boston, Mass., on May 31, 2007.
Melissa Schwenk '08