For Sean Walklin and Mario Giragosian, their visit this past Fall semester to Florence University of the Arts (FUA) was a welcome home.

As alumni of FUA’s Apicius School of Hospitality, they toured university restaurants Fedora and Ganzo, not only to reminisce, but to also observe classroom lectures in affiliation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Walklin, a professor at UAF, helped to forge a university partnership with FUA to provide study abroad opportunities for UAF students, specifically within the Apicius School of Hospitality. Giragosian is an adjunct professor at UAF and professional chef who assisted Walklin in the creation of the partnership between the two universities.

"I would say one of the similarities I noticed is that, when I came here from Alaska to Italy, so many things were different,” Walklin said. “I felt far from home, but Apicius felt very welcoming and very holistic in the way that they treated their students. There was a lot of great support from the staff, from the faculty, all the things that they do to make people feel welcome.”

Walklin remarked on how his tenure as a student at FUA impacted his career. With FUA being an American institution abroad, students often encounter many aspects that differ from their experiences in the United States and often may carry these experiences with them throughout their career.

“It was just such a transformative experience to live abroad, to be in Italy and to learn about the cuisine, the culture, the food, and it really changed my career,” Walklin said. “Almost everything I’ve done was from this kind of launching pad, this foundation that I got here.”

Through Walklin’s personal experiences at FUA during his time as a student, he was able to incorporate lived experience into the creation of the university partnership with FUA and UAF. Students enrolled in the program are able to gain real-world experience through FUA’s university restaurants, Ganzo and Fedora, while also learning about Italian cooking techniques and pasta making– aspects that Walklin feels greatly impacted his career as a professional chef. 

"It was just such a transformative experience to live abroad. To be in Italy, to learn about the cuisine, the culture, the food and it really changed my career. Almost everything I've done was from this kind of launching pad, this foundation that I got here. So going back to Fairbanks, Alaska, which is relatively a small town, in Alaska is very separated from the rest of the United States. So to come back and have the knowledge and the things that I learned here and be able to use those in my career, I've grown as a person from studying abroad and seeing people from all over the world," Walklin expressed.

Walklin and Giragosian’s visit underlines how study-abroad programs can do more than teach technique. They reshape careers and perspectives. By pairing UAF students with FUA’s student-run restaurants, the partnership offers immersive lessons in Italian cuisine, hospitality operations, and cross-cultural collaboration that traditional classrooms can’t replicate. For alumni like Walklin, the return visit was both a reminder of how formative that time abroad was and a chance to ensure future students have the same launching pad. As the two universities continue to build on that relationship, students who choose the program can expect to leave Florence not only with new culinary skills, but with broader horizons and professional confidence forged in the kitchens of Ganzo and Fedora.