This Summer, Cynthia Columbus, a Bryn Mawr sophomore pursuing a minor in Italian and a major in Linguistics,  will attend an intensive course of Italian language and culture at the Università per Stranieri in Siena, Italy, thanks to a scholarship that she was awarded for her multimedia project on food, culture, and  Italian identity.

Brava, Cindy: way to go!

Cindy first elaborated her multimedia presentation as the final project for Dr. Giuliana Perco’s  Intensive Intermediate Italian course last Fall, and then expanded, perfected and submitted it to the annual competition organized by the Centre for Italian Studies at UPenn and the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia and open to college students enrolled in Italian courses.

Two scholarships were awarded this year, one to the Università per Stranieri in Perugia, and one to the Università per Stranieri in Siena, and many submissions were received by the judging committee, from colleges as far away as Virginia and Maryland.

Jadil Rodriguez, a Bryn Mawr sophomore  majoring in pre-med and Italian, also placed among the best participants of the contest this year with her own project, involving a series of interviews to Italian native speakers.

Last year, another Bryn Mawr student, Gillian Diffenderfer, a major in Romance Languages with a focus on Italian and Spanish, won the Summer scholarship in Perugia (at the time it was the only scholarship awarded) for her very elaborate multimedia presentation on Italian national identity.

Bryn Mawr students have been participating to this contest only for the past two years, but both times, for two years in a row, they won!

Davvero bravissime, ragazze!!