Halfway through spring semester, I knew for sure that I wanted to go abroad. Even though I knew that religion was an important part of my final decision, I didn’t realize how big of a role it would actually play in my entire MISTI experience. For a little bit of context, I am currently in Italy completing research on various archaeological materials such as Roman concrete and Egyptian pigments. For the first three weeks of my stay, I have been participating in the ONE-MA^3 program (Materials in Art, Architecture, and Archeology) through Course 1. For the next month, I will be staying here in Italy working with the University of Turin to complete research on Egyptian blue and faience, both of which were used as synthetic pigments on ancient artifacts thousands of years ago.

For some background about myself, I was raised Roman Catholic in Southern California. For most of…