The Closing Ceremony of the 2017-18 academic year and the Graduation Ceremony of the class of 2018 on Saturday 19 May was the occasion for making the public announcement of the new President of UWC Adriatic. During the Closing Ceremony the outgoing President, Ambassador Gianfranco Facco Bonetti, President of the College since 2008 and one of the leading players in the birth of the College of Duino in 1982, publicly handed the baton to Ambassador Cristina Ravaglia in front of an audience of more than 350 people, before an audience of authorities, supporters and friends of the College, students and parents from 80 countries.
The ceremony began with the reading of a warm message to the students by the Governor of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga followed by brief addresses by the Mayor of Duino-Aurisina, Daniela Pallotta, and the Central Director for the Promotion of Culture and Language of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Vellano. The Director of Education, Training and Research, Ketty Segatti, represented the Region at the event.
Ambassador Cristina Ravaglia, who entered the diplomatic service in 1978, left in March 2017 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as Director General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies, a position she had held since June 2012. She speaks fluent English, Spanish, French, with a good knowledge of German and Polish and elements of Russian.
After graduating in law (1975) at the University of Florence, she took specialization courses in Administrative Law and Law of the European Communities, did forensic practice in civil and international private law and taught Civil Law and the Environment at the Rome office of the Temple University. In 1978 Cristina Ravaglia also passed the public examination granting access to the diplomatic career as well as the examination to become barrister. As a diplomat, she served abroad at the Italian embassies in Warsaw (1982-85), and Madrid (1996-2000), as well as at the general consulates in Buenos Aires (1985-89), and Munich (1992-96).
During her career she was involved on various occasions, both abroad and at the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in dealing with Italian communities abroad (consular services, voting abroad, bodies representing our communities, maintaining and disseminating the Italian language, etc.); cultural promotion and cooperation with a particular focus on youth mobility; migration policies; bilateral relations with Asia (first as Head of the Office for South East Asia and the Pacific, later as Head of the Office for North East Asia, and lastly as Deputy General Manager for Asia and the Pacific) and with Latin America (as Head of the Secretariat for the delegated Undersecretary of State); and was also involced in Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, in particular in the three years of service (1996-99) in Madrid at the Spanish Foreign Ministry, as part of the Italian-Spanish exchange programme for diplomats.
“I can assure you from the very outset my passionate and committed dedication to this very special place,” says the new President.
“In the two academic years they spend at UWC Adriatic, our students receive an outstanding international education and are supported in becoming agents of positive change in the world by upholding the guiding principles of the United World Colleges”.
