The Core is an opportunity to inquire into the fundamental aspects of being and our relationship with God, nature and our fellow human beings.
Popular Searches
Alexa Hassell graduated from the University of Dallas in 2023 with a double major in Politics and Italian and concentrations in Art History and Ethics. She had never been exposed to Italian language and literature prior to her arrival at UD but only three weeks into her first semester, she declared an Italian major given her new found love for the study of language. During her time at UD, she studied abroad in Rome, tutored students of Italian, and took courses ranging from Italian Cinema to Florence to Italian Literature from the 19th to 21st century. Her studies culminated in a senior thesis focusing on the private letters of Niccolò Machiavelli and his relationship with the Catholic Church. Alexa now attends the University of Notre Dame Law School (JD '26) where a surprising number of students speak Italian! There she serves as a Staff Editor on the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, as an oralist on the Moot Court Board, and as the Vice President of the St. Thomas More Society. She hopes to practice law in Texas upon her graduation and to keep up her Italian skills in new ways!
Alumna Marlena Figge (B.A. ‘20 Italian, English), began her UD career as a Chemistry major, but when she found out upon arrival in Irving that an Italian B.A. was in the offing, she declared as an Italian major—even BEFORE the major had gained official status. During her time on campus, Marlena was an Italian tutor and mentor, studied in Rome, and was a camp counselor at both an Italian-language immersion summer camp in northern Minnesota and at an Italian-language day-camp in Chicago. Marlena spoke no Italian when she began her study at UD, but in just three-and-a-half years she went from a 50-word essay to writing, in Italian, an outstanding, 25-page senior thesis comparing the poetry of Keats and Dante. After graduation she earned two scholarships and completed an M.A. in Italian at Middlebury College before returning to Italy in 2022-2023 with a SITE Fellowship to work as an English-language teaching assistant at the Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore (IIS) Dandolo in Brescia. Marlena now writes a regular feature on literature—often Italian—for the international media organization The Epoch Times and has published pieces on Italian authors such as Michelangelo, San Francesco d'Assisi, Dante, and Giacomo Leopardi.
Dr. Elizabeth Nogan Ranieri decided to attend UD for 3 main reasons: an art scholarship, the Rome Program, and the Core. Since she knew she would spend a semester in Rome, signing up for Italian seemed like a no-brainer—and she is so glad that she did! During her Rome semester she was out and about whenever she wasn’t in class, and ended the semester with a decent proficiency. In her junior year, she became an Italian tutor, at which point she had so many Italian credits that Dr. Forte encouraged her to pursue the Italian Concentration. That year she and a wonderful group of friends resurrected the Italian Club, which organized (arguably) the best events on campus. After graduating from UD, Dr. Ranieri decided to go to graduate school for Humanities with an emphasis in Art History. Her MA work focused on Italian female artists and patrons, and her education from UD heavily influenced her multidisciplinary doctoral research on the Neapolitan Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore—she got to use her knowledge of Theology, Philosophy, Western Civ, Lit Trad, Sacred Art, and, of course, Italian. After earning her Ph.D., these days she is right at home in a wonderful multidisciplinary department at the University of North Texas. She has led several study-abroad trips to Italy. She credits UD with her lifelong love of all things Italian and her undergraduate education with setting her up to be the multidisciplinary scholar she has become.
