Students who pursue a degree or study abroad at John Cabot University are naturally interested in literacy. As a liberal arts university, we are all about refining those essential communication skills: critical reading, insightful analysis, the coherent articulation of ideas and arguments - these are the abilities that set our students apart in academic and professional circles.
But students have also chosen a university in Rome because they are interested in learning about new cultures - and finding ways to give back and share what they consider uniquely their own. John Cabot’s Italy Reads program provides an excellent opportunity for students to combine both pursuits: it’s a cultural exchange program that shares literary classics with Italian high school students and their teachers.
The Italy Reads program encompasses 40 Italian public and international high schools and over 100 teachers of English and their students. John Cabot University students with a love of fiction can volunteer for the student exchange program and visit Italian high schools to lead discussions about this year’s novel, Ernest Hemingway’s Nobel Prize-winning A Farewell to Arms. Meanwhile, high schools will send students to John Cabot to participate in talks held on campus. Hemingway’s classic matched with John Cabot, an American university in Rome: an ideal pairing for explorations of the American psyche!
Italy Reads is about more than engaging strictly with the written word. The program has partnered up with the English Theatre of Rome to offer participants discounts on their adapted production of the Hemingway classic. And John Cabot students with a love for film will want to get involved in the free screening of Farewell to Arms - you’ll have an opportunity to lead discussions following the film with Italy Reads high school students and teachers. John Cabot will also host formal lectures about the novel’s key themes and ideas, led by members of our own esteemed faculty, including Professors Silvia Ammary and Vanda Wilcox.
This year, Italy Reads will sponsor a video contest for participating high school students. Students are invited to submit videos that situate the novel’s main themes in creative ways. Last year’s winners adapted Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake into a three minute video, and earned a cash prize of 500 euros. High school teachers involved in Italy Reads also emerge from the program as winners. John Cabot will provide teaching materials, workshops, and master classes to support high school teachers as they share the novel with their students. Check out the Italy Reads calendar of events to avoid missing out on many more opportunities to get involved.