So, good morning everybody.
As you heard in introduction, my name is Lucia Manzi
and I'm a student from Italy, more precisely from Milano,
which is the biggest city in North Italy.
Boys, suppose you know more about cities like Rome
or Venice or Florence and never heard about Milan,
which definitely looks more like a business city.
Boys, shares with many other Italian cities
are centuries old history.
My university is one of the biggest Italian university,
But what drew me here to Alabama was my interest
for American history and a libertarian tradition,
which along with economics are the topics
the Mises Institute is so concerned about
and constantly works for their diffusion.
In fact, my project focuses on the early American
political thought and in particular,
on a dispute about the Constitution
and the foundation of the American Republic
according to the natural rights theory
and its fundamental pillars, the right to life,
to freedom and to private property.
Though my university is famous and well known in my country,
the fact that it is a state university usually means
that it is structured as a big oppressive bureaucracy,
often malfunctioning and most of the times
unsuited for research.
Since if research depends on state funds,
there's not much room for freedom of research in it.
What I wanted to experience coming to the Mises
was the chance to study in a place that truly valued
all the studies concerning the search for freedom.
And I also wanted to experience studying abroad
in a country so different from mine.
Speaking as a foreign student, I must say,
nothing widens your horizon and opens your mind
like the encounter with the culture
which is so different from yours.
Everything looks new and amazing to someone
who has been living all his life in the same place
like I was.
From people's customs to the crazy weather,
I'm really glad to say there's no tornado in Italy
since it's too much of a small place
for such phenomena to happen,
to Auburn's obsession with football,
all the way up to the big difference
you can perceive from an academic point of view.
At first, getting used to a way of living
so different from yours is not as easy as one in agents
since they still cannot have dinner before 8 p.m.,
which is the usual summertime in Italy.
And unfortunately, I still use a lot of gesture
when I speak.
But soon, you learn about the people you're living with
and especially learn to appreciate the best things
about their culture.
And I must say, what particularly struck me
about the American way of living
is the culture of efficiency and the extreme wealth
that you can experience spending even just a little time
in the USA, even in a small quiet town like Auburn is.
Even the most ordinary things like the waitress
refreshing your glass without a sweet tea
or the same waitress approaching your table
every five minutes to ask you if everything is still fine
are the evidence of a long story of wealth
and attention to serve the customer as best as possible.
Just think about the amazing variety of choices you get
when you enter any grocery store
as Jeff mentioned before in his talk, or any coffee shop.
These are the consequences,
the best consequences of capitalism.
And they made the difference in every field,
especially in the field of research.
In particular, in this field,
they mean that most of the times,
a research project is valued by its merit.
And there are places like the Mises Institute
who live and work in the most efficient way
without any dependence on government funds
and are so deeply devoted to boldly pursuing their ideals,
which imply a true love for research
without the need for any compromise.
In Italy, it would have been so much harder
to find any similar institution,
able to provide its students with all the support needed.
Actually, at this time in my country,
it is even harder to find any university
able to provide its most talented students
with a decent scholarship, or any room for research,
which is suffering a miserable situation
at this very moment.
In conclusion, these are the reasons why, in the end,
I can say that what I've gained from my experience
as a student abroad is definitely the possibility
to learn not only by what I'm studying,
but especially by the encounter with people
that share with me the same passion
in search for truth and freedom,
despite our different cultural backgrounds,
which in the end turned out to be a far worse source of knowledge more than an obstacle.