With Hurricane Irma threatening to ground Florida weekend air traffic, 28 students who form the inaugural class for Beacon College’s “Beacon in Tuscany” global education program took to the road by bus Thursday afternoon on a 15-plus hour trek to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the launch pad for their trip to Prato, Italy.
As weather forecasters predicted a powerful, disruptive storm making Florida landfall this weekend, Beacon President George Hagerty decided earlier this week to make impromptu arrangements for bus service to ferry Beacon in Tuscany students to New York ahead of possible flight cancellations and missed connections to Italy.
Students boarded the coach bus Thursday. Hagerty and Beacon Provost Dr. Shelly Chandler stood by to wish them bon voyage.
The Beacon in Tuscany program will be managed in Italy by Dr. Andrea Brode, Beacon’s Dean of Student Success and is believed to the first semester-long study abroad program for students who learn differently.