Three Years of Italian Intensive Summer Program for College Credit (2019 report)

The only one of its kind in the U.S., the Italian summer intensive program for college credit was successfully offered for the third year in a row on the Montclair State campus in July 2019. Geared towards high school students from the Tri-State area, this Summer Sessions three-week program continues to represent a concrete example of the active synergies between university (Inserra Chair and Italian Program in the MLL Dept.) and high school systems to create a continuum in students’ learning path across levels.

The summer program combines dynamic AP-style in-class instruction, engaging guest speakers and special off-campus tours (Tenement Museum as well as Eataly and Magazzino Italian Art depicted in the photos below) to provide students with an immersive experience that strengthens their relationship with Italian language and Italian culture in a transnational perspective spanning from the history of the diaspora to environmental sustainability, Slow Food, contemporary art, education and the Made in Italy business. A collaborative effort at all levels, the program relies on an ever-expanding network of high schools (twenty-one in past three years, 1/3 of which was added just in 2019), the steady infrastructural support of the Italian government via IACE in New York, and donations from the Italian American community, especially a generous one of $10,000 this year from NJIHC, which have allowed over half of the students to receive a scholarship.

Born out of the need to provide students with a summer bridge experience to prepare them for advanced classes in high school, including the AP, this award-winning course has grown into a multi-faceted program that continues to expand and improve every year. A new development in the 2019 edition was the residential option which made it possible for students from South Jersey and NY State to attend.

The stay on campus provided increased opportunities to use the Italian language through supplemental activities created ad hoc for the residential students (such as a visit to the Yogi Berra Museum to learn about an Italian American sport icon – see photo). As the program evaluations at large show, students remarked on their improvement in listening and speaking the language, together with a critical boost in self-confidence from their participation in the program.

The residential option prompted the development of another new aspect in 2019, a program intern and activity leader position which was assigned to an exchange student, Sigrid Karner-Ruehl, from the University of Graz, Austria, a testament to how kaleidoscopic international experiences can be in the globalized world we operate in (read her story here). Equally innovative was the addition of a HS intern – Lara Funderburk, a previous summer program attendee in 2017 (read her story here) – who worked as research assistant to collect data about the program’s impact on language study, which continues to be presented at conferences around the country.

“The program is also a striking example of a key element in today’s education” – Patti Grunther, program coordinator remarked. “Since it strongly reflects the socio-economic, ethnic and racial diversity of the Tri-State area, it acts as a counter to increasingly segregated K-12 school systems. The program brings a diverse group of students together on a campus well-known for its diversity and inclusivity, and students have often commented on this eye-opening and beneficial aspect of the program in their evaluations. That Italian Studies offers the ground for diversity is no surprise given the internal variety of the country and its communities abroad due to inbound and outbound migrations.”

Finally, the program is a unique example of collaboration across units (including Admissions at MSU), governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and last but not least two MSU faculty members (Dr. Teresa Fiore and Dr. Marisa Trubiano), a HS teacher (Patti Grunther) and an MSU adjunct instructor (Roberta Scortechini). As Fiore and Grunther noted: “Our specific collaborative work starts in September and ends in August, and at some point the report of the previous edition overlaps with the design of the following one. But reading the students’ feedback and their use of words such as ‘loved’, ‘truly enjoyed’, ‘liked every moment of it’ continues to drive our efforts towards new horizons, such as that of hosting a group of high school students from Italy or taking the local high school students to Italy in the near future, as well as advancing our research project.”

RELEVANT LINKS

Summer Italian Intensive Program for College Credit (See 2017 edition, 2018 edition, and 2019 edition)

Benefits of the Italian Intensive Summer Program at Montclair State

Montclair State University Italian Summer Program Consortium and Participating High Schools

Montclair HS Student of Italian Interns for Inserra Chair and Italian Program at MSU (May-June 2019)

Bridging the University and HS Systems Through World Languages: New Approaches to Italian Teaching

Innovation in Language Education: Linking High School, University and Pre-Professional Experiences through Italian

Projects with High Schools