Italy Reads 2019-2020 Announces Winners of Student Video Contest

JCU’s Italy Reads Program has announced the winners of the Student Video Contest of April 1, 2020. Italy Reads is a community-based English language reading and cultural exchange program. Each year, nearly 200 teachers from over 65 Italian high schools and their students participate in the program and read together one classic work of American literature. The work selected for the 2019-2020 edition is Leaves of Grass, by American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

The Student Video Contest is the culmination of a year of activities between high schools and JCU’s Italy Reads Program, centered around the work and life of the selected author. Since 2010, Italy Reads has offered this annual contest to students as an opportunity to further their understanding of a selected work of American literature through a different form of creative communication: video production. Through Italy Reads, many students earn a significant number of hours for Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e per l’Orientamento (PCTO), a mandatory program that allows Italian high school students to gain practical work experience.

This year, 13 three-minute videos inspired by American poet Walt Whitman and his work Leaves of Grass were submitted for the competition from students at 9 high schools in Rome, Santa Marinella (near Rome), and Venice. Unable to host the annual Award Ceremony at JCU due to Covid-19 restrictions, Italy Reads announces the winners of this year’s edition confident that we will soon enjoy the pleasure of meeting together once again at JCU.

Prizes are awarded to the winning class as reimbursement for an expense of their choice. Specific instructions on how to obtain the prize are sent directly to the winning class and their teacher together with their award certificate. In the past, students have used their prize money to make a charitable donation, contribute toward a class trip or meal together, etc.

Congratulations to all!
We remind you that next year, Italy Reads 2020-2021 is reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring! Deadline to enter the contest: January 2021. The Award Ceremony will be held at JCU in April 2021.

Winners
1st prize (€ 500): Journey Through a Modern Man’s (confused) Mind, by the students of Class V EE, Professor Laura Galante at Liceo Classico Europeo Marco Foscarini, Venice
2nd prize (€ 300): Praise life!, by the students of Class V E, Professor Daniele Funaro, Licei Vittoria Colonna, Rome
Honorable Mention for Best Script: Looking for Life, by the students of Class 4 N, Professor Marinella Putano Bisti and Professor Annunziata di Dea at Liceo Classico Sperimentale Statale Bertrand Russell, Rome
Honorable Mention for Originality of Concept and for using Whitman’s criteria to describe a place: My Rome by the students of Class 4N, Professor Marinella Putano Bisti and Professor Annunziata di Dea at Liceo Classico Sperimentale Statale Bertrand Russell, Rome
Honorable Mention for bringing one of Whitman’s key ideas into a different context using a clear and well-timed narrative: Why should you not speak to me? by the students of Class IV E, Professor Elisabetta Ranieri at Liceo Scientifico Statale Morgagni, Rome