“So much of science is driven by meeting people and making connections and starting projects with them. It’s about the fundamental aspect of science and the way we progress is through our interactions with other people and setting up those collaborations,” said Julia Farnan, a second year PhD student in the Pharmacology and Physiology program of the Drexel University College of Medicine.

Farnan would know. She and Anthony DiNatale, a MD/PhD student in the same graduate program in the College of Medicine, were the first two Drexel students to be hosted at the University of Bologna in Italy as part of a new exchange partnership. After spending five weeks there last November and December learning about their Italian counterparts and their research, they returned to the University to share that information with their colleagues and departments.