I leave for Italy in less than a week. I am extremely excited to go as this will be my first time in the country. I suppose that I have very general expectations of Italy itself at the moment. I know I’ll eat great food, see beautiful art and architecture, and that many of my friends and relatives are perceptibly green with envy. But I also know that there is so much more to it than I could possibly ever imagine without direct experience. So despite the best intentions of the editors of “Let’s Go Italy,” I will depart somewhat of a blank slate ready to write my own version of life in Turin.

As for the work I will do in the country, this is what excites me the most. I have spent the past few months absorbing facts at a feverish pace and expanding my knowledge of human rights and public international law vastly. Yet this necessary precondition for my chosen path of future employment has left me longing to see how this knowledge can be applied in a real world setting that will directly impact someone’s life. This longing is what drove me away from a potential career in journalism and back into school about a year ago. Yet for all of my initial preparation and research on human trafficking, I am also well aware that I have much more to learn outside of the classroom and away from books.

I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to contribute to TAMPEP in any small way I can, as well as to learn, this summer. I also can’t wait to meet the rest of the NGO staff with whom I have not been in direct correspondence, and to meet those with whom I have face to face.

The next time I write, I will be in Turin!