Ancient Medicine as Inspiration

Simply put, studying abroad was the most intellectually and socially rewarding experience of my life. Until that point, everything I knew about the Classics had been restricted to texts and pictures--these gave me a good foundation but were insufficient to understand how the Romans lived. To actually go to the cradle of Classical civilization, Rome, and explore the archaeology, art history, and architecture as a Classicist contextualized my previous knowledge. The environment was fantastic. I met Classics majors from around the nation who loved this as much as I did--pretty rare to find--and challenged me. My new-found lens on ancient civilizations even inspired a senior thesis about ancient medicine because of a project I did there. Overall, I'd recommend studying abroad, especially if there's a program that fits your intellectual or social interests!

Amol Sura, Duke 2011