Voices from Abroad: Alessando Di Battista

Beijing (China), Campus Abroad
Dublin (Ireland), CEMS, Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

Three years have passed since I sent my first application to an international program at Università Bocconi during the second year of my bachelor, just a few days after International Week 2009. I can vividly remember the excitement while awaiting the opening of the application process. Hundreds of cities and universities were listed as possible destinations for programs such as the Exchange, the Campus Abroad and the International Internship.

Great Wall of China

South Korea, Japan (Campus Abroad) and Spain (Exchange) eventually became the stops off of an uninterrupted journey that lasted almost 7 months and represented the very first long-term international experience I have ever had.

I wrote already for Via Sarfatti 25 of the unforgettable experience of the Campus Abroad 2009 in Tokyo and Seoul, which represented my first in-depth contact with a really different culture. Since then, I have had the chance to travel in sixteen countries on three continents, almost always for reasons related to academic studies, job interviews, workshops, career fairs and, of course, friendship.

During these three years I have continued to take advantage of the variety of international programs that our university offers in order to make its students real "citizens of the world". Hence, the choice of the Master of Science degree could not be dispensed from the influence of the enthusiasm for an international career that I had developed throughout my recent experiences abroad.

In September 2010, after a tough selection process, I enrolled in the MSc in International Management, regarded as the most international program offered by Bocconi. Some months later, another long period of travels was about to begin. Indeed, a wide variety of international programs are offered to the students of the International Management course, ranging from 5 different Double Degrees to the CEMS, not to mention the well-known Exchange, Campus Abroad and International Internship.

The CEMS and the Campus Abroad Graduate were the outcome of the selection process.

The Campus Abroad destination was, like two years before, again in the incredible Asian continent: Beijing. Frankly, the first time in Asia is an unforgettable experience. But when it comes to going back, as it was the case, a new sensation hits your body. The sounds, the languages, the people give off something that appears familiar to the mind and the body, like a bizarre feeling of being at home in a new, unexplored country. Right after the end of the Campus Abroad program, hence, I decided to stay in China a little bit more to explore on my own other amazing cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau.

But just a few weeks after my return in Italy, it was time to leave again for the CEMS. The CEMS Master in International Management is globally recognized as one of the best masters in management for its orientation toward internationality and diversity. As part of this 12-month program, which is undertaken during the second year of the Master of Science, I have been assigned a destination to spend a semester abroad, as what happens for the Exchange Program. But differently from the Exchange, the host universities are only those that offer the CEMS Master among their courses. Thus, being a CEMS student means firstly to be part of an international network of universities, each of which enroll its own "CEMSies" that, eventually, are compulsorily sent for a term as exchange students to other schools in the alliance.

Street musicians in Dublin

My CEMS host school was the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School of the University College Dublin. After many years spent travelling in distant and different countries, living a semester in Dublin could appear almost an ordinary and easy experience. But in the end it has become a unique experience above all thanks to the fantastic people I have met in my CEMS class and the social events organized by the local CEMS Club.

And here I have to stop since the second part of the CEMS program is still about to begin: after the last semester at Bocconi (with an almost totally new class of incoming exchange students) I will start my internship abroad, which is another compulsory experience of the CEMS and that will provide me with the opportunity to explore another foreign country whose name, for the sake of suspense, is not yet known even to me.