The Director of the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America, Dr. Mary Ann Re, is delighted to announce that, recognizing the importance of acknowledging and motivating excellence in the teaching of Italian, the Coccia family and Lawrence Inserra, Jr., have established this significant award.

Our donors will be awarding a very generous prize of $5000 as the monetary component of the Coccia-Inserra Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Teaching of Italian (K-12) for academic year 2016. These funds are to be allocated as follows:

a) $2500 is to be used exclusively to advance the Italian language and culture curriculum and programming within the recipient's classroom;

b) $2500 is to be dedicated to the professional development of the winning teacher (for direct payment of academic fees to an institution of professional development in Italian language and culture at home or abroad).

We strongly encourage full-time language teachers certified in Italian who are teaching a minimum of two classes of Italian at the K-12 level to apply! Please note: The deadline for applications is FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2016. All applications and supporting material must be submitted electronically.

The Coccia-Inserra Award will be presented on Friday, October 28, 2016 during our ninth annual Teaching Italian Symposium-Workshop, the Coccia Institute's signature professional development program for teachers of Italian. The Symposium/Workshop is offered in collaboration with Montclair State University's Department of Spanish and Italian and the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies. The recipient's travel and lodging expenses will be assumed by the Coccia-Inserra Award committee.

A copy of the application and guidelines can be found at

http://www.montclair.edu/media/montclairedu/chss/departments/coccia/cocciaevents/2016-Coccia-Inserra-Teaching-Award-Application.doc

Also feel free to contact the Coccia Institute's Director, Dr. Mary Ann Re, at [email protected]