When Melissa Ludtke learned that her parents planned to move their family to Europe for a year, she was devastated. At 17, she couldn't imagine anything worse than leaving behind her friends, her high school in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the familiar world she had always known.
What she couldn't have imagined was that the experience she resisted so fiercely would become one of the most transformative chapters of her life.
In a beautifully personal essay published on her Substack on October 16, 2026, titled “Let’s Row Together,” Melissa takes readers back to 1968, when she and her younger sister arrived in Rome to attend St. Stephen’s School.
What followed was a year of extraordinary discovery, one that introduced her to new cultures, lifelong friendships, the extraordinary artistic heritage of Rome, and, perhaps most importantly, a curiosity about the world that would eventually shape her career as a journalist.
Discovering a World Beyond the Classroom
Melissa recalls being enchanted by St. Stephen’s from her first glimpse of the school's original villa, with its burnt-orange exterior, distinctive turret, and surrounding trees. Even before the academic year began, Rome had begun to work its magic.
Once school started, the city quickly became an extension of her classroom.
She wandered through churches, museums, piazzas, and cafés, discovering the works of Michelangelo, Bernini, Raphael, and Caravaggio. Under the guidance of her art history teacher, Franca Camiz, whose lectures and excursions brought art and history vividly to life, Melissa developed an appreciation for art that would later lead her to major in art history at Wellesley College.
Equally important were the friendships and experiences that came with living in an international community. She recalls spontaneous excursions through Rome, weekends exploring Italian towns, long conversations in cafés, and the exhilarating independence of discovering a new culture at an impressionable age.
These seemingly ordinary moments became extraordinary lessons in independence, openness, and self-discovery.
The Curiosity That Shaped a Career
Melissa’s journey toward journalism actually began shortly before she arrived at St. Stephen’s. During her family's travels through Europe in the summer of 1968, she visited Prague just days before Soviet tanks entered the city. She wrote an account of what she had witnessed and sent it to her hometown newspaper, The Amherst Record, which published her story.
At the time, she had no idea that this early experience would foreshadow her future profession.
Looking back, she recognizes how her year at St. Stephen’s deepened the curiosity and confidence that would become essential to her work as a journalist.
“That lesson is to let curiosity drive my life.”
It is a powerful reflection on the importance of education beyond textbooks and classrooms — an education that encourages students to ask questions, embrace unfamiliar experiences, and develop the confidence to navigate an increasingly complex world.
Melissa went on to build a distinguished career in journalism and become an important advocate for women’s equal access and opportunity in sports reporting. Her memoir, Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside, explores that journey and the barriers she challenged along the way.
A Connection That Endures
More than five decades later, Melissa’s relationship with St. Stephen’s and Rome remains deeply personal.
She has maintained lifelong friendships with classmates, some of whom still call Italy home. In 2011, she returned to St. Stephen’s when her daughter, Maya, participated in a two-week History of the Renaissance course, allowing a new generation of her family to experience the city that had meant so much to her.
Her essay also offers a poignant reflection on her parents, whose decision to send her abroad initially seemed so impossible to accept. Only with time did she fully appreciate the remarkable gift they had given her.
Today, Rome continues to draw her back, not simply for its beauty or history, but for the memories, friendships, and sense of discovery that have remained with her throughout her life.
The Lasting Impact of a St. Stephen’s Education
Melissa’s story is a beautiful reminder of what makes the St. Stephen’s experience so distinctive. Learning takes place not only within the classroom but also through the city, the people we meet, the cultures we encounter, and the opportunities we embrace — often without realizing how profoundly they will shape us.
Her reflections speak to something that generations of St. Stephen’s alumni will recognize: the extraordinary ability of a single year, an unexpected friendship, or a moment of discovery to influence an entire lifetime.
We are grateful to Melissa for sharing such an honest, thoughtful, and moving account of her time at St. Stephen’s, and for reminding us that the greatest lessons of an education are sometimes those we fully understand only years later.
Read Melissa’s original essay, published on her Substack on October 16, 2026.
