The Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures presented awards to outstanding students in the Italian Language Program on April 25, 2017. Italian Consul in Detroit Dr. Maria Manca was in attendance to honor the students for their achievements.

Faculty members James Michels, Dr. Raffaele DeBenedictis, and Irene Marletta presented awards to the following Outstanding Italian Students in the Basic and Intermediate Course Sequence and Italian Culture Courses: Sameen Akhtar, Galen Michael Calligan, Alexander Tillmon Kleszcz, Summar Ismail Rifai , Kyle Jeffery Tomlinson, Grace Angela Fusani, Josephine Biundo,  Evan Hansinger, Puja Deb, Martin Cabrera, Sabrina Di Pietro, Rosemary Joseph, Alexis Marie Fraley, William Turner, Michael Vandro, and Jane Thornton.

The following Outstanding Italian Students in the Basic and Intermediate Course Sequence and Italian Culture Courses received awards from Emanuela Marionni and Silvia Giorgini: Alexandra Petroj, Mark Addie, Bhavneet Bansal, VhernGerangaya, Giuseppe Artusi, Anthony Damer Chase, Austin Zaia, Juxhin Alushi, Uzma Riaz, and Nicola DePalma. 

Silvia Giorgini, Elena Past and Raffaele DeBenedictis presented awards to these Outstanding Italian Students in Advanced Courses: Antonio Mercatante, Emily Tujaka, Brennan Cook, Steven Dorshkind, Rodolfo Hernandez-Diaz, and Emily Fields. 

The IACS is very proud of Vice President Clarice Squillace, who is studying Italian at Wayne.  She received an award for Dedication to Promoting Italian Culture, along with Ali Safa, John Vollmer, and Paul Wierzbicki.

The recipient of this year’s Seros Award is Laken Guza, and the Premio Pucci was awarded to Redon Ipeku.

Congratulations to all the students for these great achievements, and thank you to the wonderful faculty for being dedicated to imparting the love of the Italian language, literature, and culture.