On July 19, the awards ceremony for the “Italian unification” competition organized by Aspen Institute Italia and the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana was held at Palazzo Lancellotti, Aspen Italia’s headquarters in Rome. Participating in the ceremony hosted by Silvia Calandrelli (Head of RAI Educational) were Francesco Profumo (the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research), Giuliano Amato (Chairman of the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana) and Cesare Romiti (an Honorary Chairman of Aspen Institute Italia) – both members of the judging panel – and Angelo Maria Petroni (Secretary General of Aspen Institute Italia.
Some 600 higher secondary schools took part in the competition, and the awards ceremony was attended by delegations from the winning schools in the “group projects” category as well as by students whose individual projects were selected for a prize. The winning entries dealt with a variety of topic areas – including history, culture, music, law and social studies – and covered a range of (in several cases) quite innovative formats, such as short films, videos, photographs and songs. The schools in attendance spanned the length and breadth of the country, with three winning entries coming from northern Italy, two from the center of the country and three from the south.
The success of the competition, as attested by the high volume and quality of the entries, highlighted the role Italian schools have to play in fostering democracy, debate, unity and growth.
