by Lisa Femia

The National Italian American Foundation is excited to announce the creation of NIAF on Campus, a new NIAF Italian American Leadership Council (IALC) Program. If you know an outstanding Italian or Italian studies professor and Italian American college or graduate student, please encourage them to apply!

The program is open ONLY for professor and student pairs. Students and professors will be engaged throughout NIAF's Gala Weekend from October 16-18, 2015. The weekend will include roundtrip travel expenses for the professor and student, two-night hotel accommodations at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., and free access to all NIAF Gala Weekend Events including the Friday night event and Saturday night 40th Anniversary Awards Gala Dinner.

This new NIAF initiative will address a gap on college campuses. Though there are numerous Italian American social, fraternal, linguistic and academic organizations on campuses throughout America, there has never been a unified strategy to their organization and management. NIAF on Campus will design and implement a more effective strategy by bringing together the most active faculty, professors and students throughout the nation so that they may have an equal voice in the process. The approach will be user-generated, grass roots, and ground up.

Professors and students who are selected will not only be participants in NIAF's regularly occurring conferences and events, but also in special conferences and round tables restricted solely to the NIAF IALC Fellows. At these events, the Fellows will form the initial working groups on this project. This program is a year-long fellowship that begins at the NIAF Gala Weekend, but participants will be expected to participate in 2-3 conference calls over the course of the remainder of the academic year as the Fellows build out this future program.

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE ON OCTOBER 2. To see read more about the program, access application requirements, and apply online, please go to http://www.niaf.org/programs/niafoncampus/.

Again, please share this with Italian professors and students you know. We look forward to learning more about Italian programs across the country! If you have any questions you may contact me at [email protected] or (202) 939-3120.

Thank you! Best Regards,

Lisa Femia
Manager of Public Policy

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)