HISTORY
PROUD HERITAGE
The John Felice Rome Center holds the distinction of being the oldest continually-operating U.S. university program in Italy.
For almost five decades now, the JFRC has served as a fully-equipped American campus; its present location is on Monte Mario near the site of a former Olympic Village, just 20 minutes northwest of Vatican City and half-ah-hour from Rome's histroic city center (Roma Centro). The campus opened its doors in the spring of 1962 as the Loyola University Chicago Rome Center for Liberal Arts.
In December 2004, Loyola President Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., rededicated the center to its founder, John Felice.
After serving in the British armed forces during World War II, Felice, a Maltese native, saw the devastation wrought by war as the byproduct of a profound lack of understanding among cultures. So, in the spirit of global healing, he created the JFRC, a first-of-its-kind study-abroad program, with a focus on fostering education and tolerance among people of various religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.
The center continues to bring together students from dozens of universities and colleges throughout the United States for a unique living-learning experience.
See a small sampling of the more than 650 schools whose students have come to Loyola's John Felice Rome Center throughout its 47-year history. These other institutions represent 64% of the Rome Center's 14,000 alumni/ae, who are all members of the John Felice Rome Center Alumni Association organized in 1997.