My name is Brian Poepsel, and I am a coffee drinker. My
morning coffee is the most important ritual in my life. I own at least half a dozen different kinds
of coffee makers. I spend more money than I should on specially roasted,
sustainably sourced beans. I’ve even taken classes about coffee brewing (there
is such a thing!). A shared love of coffee is at least partially responsible
for my wife & I getting together (where I am obsessed with quality, she’s all
about quantity- she has 32 oz. of coffee every morning).
My adventures in coffee drinking began during my semester
abroad in Rome, which did more to shape my interests and career choices than
just about anything else I did in college. I studied architecture at the
University of Arkansas Rome Center, a requirement for my degree in
architectural design. A critical stop on our orientation tour of Rome with
Davide Vitali, the director of the Arkansas Rome Center, was a café in the
Piazza San Eustachio, one of the highest rated cafés in Rome. I had my first Italian cappuccino there,
standing at the bar, and I was hooked.
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Plotting my return trip to Rome at the Trevi Fountain
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Pretty quickly, a morning cappuccino and an afternoon coffee
became an essential part of my routine. Sometimes, the number and frequency of
coffee breaks increased as we all adjusted to the more relaxed pace of course
schedules and excursions that typifies the Italian attitude toward punctuality
(a mere suggestion, like their pedestrian crossings and traffic signals).
I picked up other new interests in Rome as well, like
cooking and wearing really nice shoes (and socks! my style in general was
definitely influenced by my months living in Europe). More importantly, my semester abroad was a
turning point in my professional career.
The extra time I had to spend in art history and humanities classes in
Rome confirmed what I already felt- that while I am passionate about the built
environment, that passion for buildings didn’t extend to actually making architecture. I finished my bachelor of architecture soon
after my semester abroad, then pursued a graduate education in architectural
history.
My master’s thesis about the architecture of Fay Jones
ultimately brought me back to Arkansas after I graduated from the University of
Texas at Austin. I taught Architectural history in the Fay Jones School for a
year before pursuing something that was in the back of my mind the whole time-
advising students on campus here at the University of Arkansas.
As of this writing, I’ve been in the office of Study Abroad
for exactly 1 month, and it’s been great so far! I advise students who are
studying abroad with external programs, a position which actually puts me in more
direct contact with students then when I was teaching big lecture classes. My study abroad experience changed my outlook
on the world and refocused my interests, and I am excited to usher more
students along this path of personal discovery. Study abroad offers an
opportunity for students to learn so much about themselves and their place in
the world, I can’t wait to send my first group of students outside our borders
in January!
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and
narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by
vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” –Mark Twain
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Experiencing the Colosseum with all of my senses!
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Travel Pals at Parc Guell in Barcelona
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Sunset on the Bay of Naples
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