The Italian Language Week in New England
The Italian Language Week has two main thematic strands: sustainability linked to a great intellectualot the 20th century, Italo Calvino (ante litteram environmentalist writer) and democracy through the contribution made by renowned Harvard former professor Gaetano Salvemini (an intellectual historian committed to the struggle for democracy). Both...
Prof. Paolo Gaudenzi is the new Science Attaché in Boston
Today, Prof. Paolo Gaudenzi, Director of the Mechanical and Aerospace Department, took up service as Scientific Representative at the Consulate General of Italy in Boston. Prof. Gaudenzi, serves as a Professor of Aerospace Structures within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the Università di Roma La Sapienza, where he coordi...
Torrington's UNICO chapter continues long tradition of honoring students
If the CIAC ever decided to expand its Scholar/Athlete concept to organizations, it might well consider the Torrington chapter of UNICO. “We’re not a sports organization,” UNICO President Brian Mattiello emphasized in a Saturday morning get-together, along with scholarship co-chairmen Paul Denza and Pat Finn. Neither is any CIAC Scholar/Athlete str...
From a Brockton kid to Stonehill's commencement speaker: John Della Volpe returns home
When John Della Volpe was a teenager living with his family in Brockton, he and his friend would ride their bikes down the dirt path that led to Stonehill College’s campus. They’d play basketball in the college’s old gym, or ice skate on campus during the winter. Della Volpe, now the director of polling at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, returned...
MITA scholarship awards 2023
The Massachusetts Italian Teachers Association (MITA) is offering four scholarships to worthy students who have studied Italian for at least 3 years in high school. Please distribute this information to your students or other colleagues. Application deadline: April 15, 2023. Students must be seniors in high school. Students must have studied Italia...
School Committee in Wilmington debates keeping Columbus Day
The School Committee meeting brought debate and contention during their second reading of the 2023-2024 school year calendar last Wednesday night as they discussed changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and changing the day before winter break to a full day of school. Superintendent Dr. Glenn Brand provided the committee with a range of e...
Elizabeth Elmi to begin new position as Assistant Professor in Musicology at Williams College
Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Grace Elmi who has been offered a tenure track position of Assistant Professor in Musicology at Williams College (MA), starting in Fall 2023. She was Visiting Professor at UNC Chapel Hill for the 2021-2022 academic year and she has spent the last year in Italy, first as a Fulbright fellow at the University of Basili...
ENI and CFS sign agreement on fusion energy
Italian oil giant ENI and Commonwealth Fusion System (CFS), a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), signed a new cooperation agreement on Thursday to speed up the industrialization of fusion energy. ENI first invested in CFS in 2018 and is a major shareholder. Thursday's agreement strengthens the partnership between the tw...
For his leadership on COVID-19, Alessandro Vespignani receives ‘lifetime honor’ from American Association for the Advancement of Science
Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute and Sternberg Family Distinguished Professor at Northeastern, has been elected as a Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The group is the world’s largest “general scientific society” and publisher of perhaps the most widely recognized prestigious academic...
“Come, scusa? Non ti followo” in Boston, MA
Last Monday the Consulate General of Italy in Boston held the award ceremony of the literary contest named “Come, scusa? Non ti followo” (Sorry? I’m not following you). On the occasion of the XXII Italian Language Week in the World, the Education Office at the Consulate General of Italy in Boston launched the literary contest intended for high scho...
Columbus Day Revived in Conn. Town as School Board Fights ‘Cancel Culture’
A small Connecticut town just took a big step to observe and honor Christopher Columbus. After a decade of holding class on the second Monday in October, Columbus Day will once again be celebrated during the 2024-25 school year in New Canaan. The New Canaan Board of Education passed a motion 5-4 on Monday to reestablish the holiday. The board vo...
Students Design an Italian Café as part of Hands-On Course in Tuscany
This semester, Sophia Caldas ’23 and her classmates worked together to design a café as part of a class assignment. Their classroom? A café in Italy. As they sipped coffee at a bottega in Tuscany, the students discussed everything from the plants that would decorate their hypothetical café to COVID protocols. They were just a short walk from the Un...