Celebrations in Gemona for the 40th anniversary of the law that created UWC Adriatic, Area Science Park, the University of Udine, SISSA and the Interpreters and Translator’s School of the University of Trieste.
The 1976 earthquake did not just leave behind an area reduced in ruins. On the contrary, it was the starting point for the rebirth of a region that was not merely reconstructed with bricks and cement but also with the building blocks of culture, research and internationalisation. The 1978 decree n. 102 of the President of the Republic led to the creation of 5 outstanding academic and research institutions: the University of Udine, Area Science Park, SISSA (the International School of Advanced Studies), the Interpreters and Translator’s School of the University of Trieste and UWC Adriatic.
On October 8th in Gemona del Friuli, a small town that is in itself the symbol of this ambitious reconstruction process, the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia and these five academic and research institutions united to celebrate the 40th aniversary of the decree and the vision of those who conceived and supported a reconstruction process based on knowledge. These five institutions were created thanks to the foresight of their promotors who realised that one of the major challenges of the near future was that of an increasingly interconnected and globalised world and that rising to this challenge required educating young generations for international understanding, peaceful coexistence and the celebration of diversity. For this very reason, alongside the creation of three academic and research instutions and of a science and innovation park, the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia also supported the creation of UWC Adriatic, the first UWC in a non English speaking country.
“UWC Adriatic” says Ambassador Cristina Ravaglia, President of UWC Adriatic, “set out with the ambitious vision of creating an educational institution that would teach its students how to do away with trenches, bring down walls and build their lives inspired by the value of diversity and a genuine and concrete determination to make the world a better place one step at a time.” The College’s 3371 alumni are now spread all over the world and cerish their memories of the beautiful region they spent two transformative years in and of the many locals they grew fond of in their time here.
During the event in Gemona, named “Five outstandingly successful stories”, five alumni from the institutions involved illustrated the impact of their education in FVG on their career and lives: Ghil’ad Zuckermann, alumn of UWC Adriatic, Linguistics Professor at the Univerisity of Adelaide and expert in the interaction between languages, historical linguistics, and the revitalization of endagered languages; Sabrina Strolego, founding partner and CEO of Ergolines Lab, a company born in Area Science Park; Marco Brancaccio, a neuroscientist who did his PhD in SISSA and now teaches neuroscience at Imperial College in London and is involved in research work on dementia and other degenerative diseases; Francesco De Bettin, one of the first to earn a degree in civil engineering at the University of Udine, founder and President of DBA Group and Sergio Allioni, interpreter at the EU Commission’s DG for interpreting and translation, who is an alumn of the Scuola superiore di lingue moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori of the University of Trieste.
“The celebrations in Gemona were included in the calendar of ProESOF events – Trieste in 2020 will host the European Science Forum (ESOF) – and this in itself bears witness to the fact that the investment made in these institutions has yielded outstanding results”, declared Alessia Rosolen, Regional Councillor for Work, Education and Research. The governor of the region, President Massimiliano Fedriga concluded the celebrations by saying “Today we no longer speak of the regions reconstruction but of the construction of the future, and my objective is to attract to this region more and more international companies so that Friuli Venezia Giulia may become a European innovation and logistics hub”.
In the afternoon, the 24 College students that participated in the event were invited by the local high school Magrini Marchetti where they met their peers and were involved in 4 presentations by a local student and 4 UWCAD second year students. Ananada, from Bosnia Herzegovina, spoke about ethnic based segregation in education in her country, Mor (Israel) and Arein (Palestine), described how youngsters from both sides of the Israel-Palestine divide can move beyond the conflict and build a peaceful future and Mohamed (Egypt), recalled how his dream of pursuing a quality education abroad brought him to cross the Mediterranean on a boat with other Egyptian immigrants and how he survived the ordeal of being an illegal alien and an unaccompanied minor in Italy and eventually succeeded in passing the UWC selections and joined UWC Adriatic.
Watch the video here (currently in Italian but the English version is in preparation).
