.. Back For More Almost half of Harding's students went to one of the seven overseas programs the university offered. These students sign ed .p months, even years in ad– vance to guarantee that their spot was saved for the trip. ThC!se students look pictures , video and bought hundreds ofdoll~sworth of souveni rs so they could remember then one shot at living in a foreign country. h In Spring 2009, a group of students le ft for H arding Univers ity in Flor ence, Italy. About three weeks into the spring semester, the HUF group went on a skiing trip in the Alps. The en– tire group spent several days skiing and enjoying the snow though little did they know that a turn of eve nts would soon end one student's time overseas. Junior Jennifer Makool started the first day of the ski trip taking lessons on the bunny slopes. She fell a few times, but stayed on her skis for most of the day. The next day there were more people on the beginner slopes so she d ecided to try the longer runs. After stopping for lunch, half the group stayed in for a nap while the rest went for a few more runs down the slopes. Ma – kool decided to take on one more run before a nap. " I started down the mountain just hne, but as ] got to one of the bigger incHnes I started to pick up speed," Makool said. 'Welll didn't know how to stop and ] couldn't slow down no matter how 44 student life hard I tried so 1 decided to just sit down. When ] went to sit , I rolled and my ski got stuck in the snow causing my leg to snap. At this moment I screamed loudly. Everybody turned around and started taking off their skis and runn.ing towards me. I was crying, throwing snowballs and just telling everybody ] knew my leg was broken. " Fellow H UF student junior Courtney Boyd saw Makool go down but wasn't sure what had happened at first. "When ] sawJen n fall, I didn't think much of it because we aU had fallen quite a bit on the trip; we weren't the best skiers ," Boyd said. "Then ' heard her screaming. It was one of the most ter – rifying sounds I have ~ve r heard. I skied to the side of the huge mountain we were glidingdown, took off my ski s and slowly slid down to her. I stayed by her side and tried to comfort her the best I cou ld until someone got there to help." After a week of hospitals and waiting, Makool was able to fly back to the U .S. even though her leg st ill wasn't set. " I had su rgery shortly after I got back," Ma – kool said. " ] broke my leg on Feb. I7 and didn't have surgery until the 21St. I flew all the way back home with a completely broken leg ; it wasn' t even set b efore I le ft Italy." Just as Makool's adventures overseas we r e beginning, they suddenly came to an end. Her fOI·ced departure from HUF was felt by the whole group. "11 was really tough for all of us because it felt like we had j ust gotten to Italy and a member of our group was leaVing," Boyd said. " It felt like a part of us was leaving as well." Fortunately for Makool, she got another shot at enjoying a semester over seas. "When I was in the hospital I never saw that I could come back; I was only thinking about my broken leg and that I was missing out on every– thing," Makool said. "But when we saw that my sUl·gel)' went well [and thad I could get in classes and get on the list, I knew I could come back. " Makool I·eturned to HUF the summer after she broke h er leg and stayed t"tfle full semester with a new appreciation for her time abroad. "\¥hen you're there I don't know that you appreciate it that much," Makool said . "\¥hen I went the first time I didn't realize how amazing it was. The second time I went I knew it was go– ing to end and that I needed to appreciate every moment and just go out when I could and expe– rience Italy. And I needed to take advantage of every moment of free travel. " Although Makool's first trip to haly was cut short by a broken leg, she st ill got to enjoy a few weeks, plus a full semester abroad. She returned with a new appreciation for her time and travels and attributed it all to Cod. " It was awesome," said Makool. " It was totally a God thing. I was getting to do my trip over. No one gets to come back, and I did. " Jennifer Gibson
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