AP Italian Updates
Latest News - October 28, 2008: Sons of Italy Launches Grassroots Campaign to Save the Advanced Placement Italian Program. The Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA), the nation's biggest organization for people of Italian heritage, has launched a national grassroots campaign to promote the study of Italian in the U.S. and save the Advanced Placement (AP) Italian program it helped establish in 2005. View the Press Release (exit WisItalia) for more information.
Previously - October 6, 2008: The Consul General of Italy, together with the Education Office need your valuable help in order to spread to the Italian-American community an appeal aimed at saving the AP Program in Italian. The "Appello APP IT," (pdf letter) written by the Consul General Alessandro Motta, specifies the need that contributions to such a worthwhile cause are crucial at this time. A meeting, held on October 2, 2008, in Chicago, IL, with Dott. Margaret Cuomo, organized by the Education Office at the De Paul University, was very successful. It focused on the strategies to adopt in order to help flourish and establish AP Italian programs, to increase the enrollment of students in the AP Program in Italian and to strongly advocate for Italian language education.
The following people attended the meeting: Eleonora Cammareri, with the Consul General Motta and the Lecturer Dott Puggioni and with many teachers of High Schools and of numerous Universities, also AATI Vice President, former Sen. Renato Turano, the President of Order of Sons of Italy Della Croce, the President of Chicago Joint Civic Committee, Mrs. Jo Ann Serpico Persico, Senior Advocate Mr. Gene Farina, Attorney at Law Sciaccotta for NIAF, President Barghini, Treasurer Verdecchia and Dott. Di Martino for Italidea, Dott. Miceli and Dott. Annina for WisItalia, etc. Please help spread the information to your friends and colleagues by viewing the website at http://www.italianlanguagefoundation.org (exit WisItalia).
Article in Italian from la Repubblica.it, Scuola & Giovani,
Usa, italiano in estinzione la comunità immigrata si mobilita, (exit WisItalia) dated September 30, 2008, features Margaret Cuomo.
Previously - August 23, 2008: Launching of the website of the ITALIAN LANGUAGE FOUNDATION, INC., http://www.italianlanguagefoundation.org (exit WisItalia)
Information from Margaret I. Cuomo, President and Louis Tallarini, Chair of the Board of the Italian Language Foundation, Inc.:
"The Italian Language Foundation, Inc., is fully incorporated and authorized by the IRS to accept tax exempt donations.
Please visit the exciting new website, which is filled with information and offers practical opportunities to support the Advanced Placement Program in Italian, and also, Italian language programs at the high school level.
We welcome your interest, dedication, and practical support."
Previously - July 2008: Important Changes for 2009-10 from the College Board's Website
"...We are also making changes to AP Italian. The Board of Trustees of the College Board originally approved a significant investment to support AP Italian's first three years; however, the overall low levels of interest and participation among schools, teachers and students have necessitated that the College Board significantly exceed that investment just to sustain AP Italian. The College Board's investment of resources, 400 percent higher than originally committed, demonstrates our passion for this program, but only allows us to offer AP Italian through the 2008-09 academic year.
Therefore, the May 2009 AP Italian Language and Culture Exam is scheduled to be the final offering of this program.
We hope that between now and May 2009, external partners will come forward to supplement the College Board's investment and that we are able to announce a three-year extension of AP Italian through May 2012"
Read the Full Article >>
Previously - July 2008: Italian American Leaders Establish Italian Language Foundation to Support High School Studies in Italian
"New York, NY, July 3, 2008 – Matilda Cuomo, former first lady of the state of New York and chair of
the Committee to Establish the Italian AP Program, Margaret Cuomo, M.D., a member of the committee,
Louis Tallarini, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, and Salvatore Zizza, president of the
National Italian American Foundation, today announced the incorporation of the Italian Language Foundation, Inc., a non-profit entity that will promote and help underwrite the AP Italian Language and Culture Program..."
Read the Full Article >>
Previously - May/June 2008: According to a College Board press release on June 12, 2008, "On May 21, the Italian Ambassador to the United States, Giovanni Castellaneta, met in New York with College Board President Gaston Caperton to discuss possible solutions to the challenges faced by the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) course and exam in Italian Language and Culture. The meeting concluded with a call for the creation of a task force dedicated to raising the funds needed to sustain the AP course and exam in Italian beyond the 2008-09 academic year...
...
In summary: Educators can expect an update from the College Board by October 2008 announcing whether sufficient funds have been raised to enable AP Italian to be offered during the 2009-10 academic year."
Read the Full Article >>
