In the past weeks I argued that Italian is the smart foreign-language for your kids. I also showed you figures on the trend of Italian teaching in Northern California and the North-West.
On January 15, I met with Italian leaders in the Bay Area and we agreed to launch a campaign to bring Italian back to the schools of this part of America. Now everybody has the opportunity to team up with us and join our endeavor: we can all make a difference!
The Campaign’s motto is: “Let Us Adopt Italian-Language Students!” Everyone has the possibility to support students of Italian who have a great chance to take the AP test, but lack the means to do so. We also want to support teachers who have to prepare these students for the AP exam. Indeed, teachers must go through a very intensive training in order to become qualified to prepare AP students. Such trainings also require financial resources that schools and school districts cannot at present afford.
There are different ways to contribute to the project: you can “adopt” an Italian AP student by covering his/her exam fee, you can “adopt” the training costs of an Italian AP teacher, or choose yet different options. To learn about them, just check out the website of the Committee of Italians in San Francisco, Comites: http://comites-sf.org. If we have been convincing enough, then click on the PayPal icon. The following page shows the menu of all the donate-options. Even one dollar counts!
All organizations that have some connections with Italy and Italian - Italian-Americans and Italophiles - can decide to charge a small extra - even $ 1.00 - to the ticket prices of their events and devolve these proceeds to the Campaign for Italian. The Italian American Heritage Foundation of San Jose has already sent Comites a wonderful donation: Grazie Mille!
To all the Italophiles of good will who wish to support the Campaign for Italian: “Let Us Adopt Italian-Language Students!”, my warmest thanks. Together we can turn 2014 into a year of renewal and blossoming for the Italian language!
Grazie di cuore!