FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:   Elissa Ruffino (NIAF) 202/939-3106202/939-3106 or  202/939-3106 elissa@niaf.org

The NIAF Sponsors 40 Italian Students to visit Providence, NYC, Philadelphia & Washington, DC
** The NIAF Hosts 160 Student Exchanges during Summer 2001**
* 120 Italian Americans to Italy & 40 Italians to USA*

(WASHINGTON, DC – July 10, 2001) Forty Italian students attending universities throughout Italy will participate in The Gift of Discovery: Learning Exchange, Italy and America, an educational and cultural program sponsored and paid for by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) from July 20 through July 29, 2001. The Foundation’s program will increase the participants’ understanding of America and the progress that Italian Americans have made in the last century. Over 600 students between the ages of 18 and 23 applied to the Foundation’s Gift of Discovery program.

On Friday July 20, the Italian students will arrive in Providence, RI for three days to participate in the Foundation’s 8th Annual Youth Retreat. At the retreat, the students will learn about Italian American traditions and will compare those traditions to their heritage, take a boat tour of the rivers of Providence and network with Italian American students.

In New York City (July 22-24) the participants will visit the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and East Side Tenement Museum. They will enjoy an evening boat cruise and dinner on the Hudson River and visit a Krispy Kreme store in Long Island to make doughnuts and learn about the American franchise business model. Participants will also meet with NIAF Board of Director Marie Garibaldi, who was the first woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court, and NIAF Regional Vice President Vincenzo Marra, an example of an Italian immigrant who started and established a business in Manhattan.

The students will then travel to Philadelphia and Washington, DC for the remaining six days (July 24-26). They will attend a “Trenton Thunder” baseball game in northern New Jersey. In Washington, the students will meet U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and tour the U.S. Supreme Court and the White House. They will visit Capitol Hill, meet Congresswoman Connie Morella, tour the U.S. Capitol Building and learn about artist Constantino Brumidi’s contributions.

One hundred and twenty Italian American students were hosted by the NIAF on a 10-day trip to northern and southern Italy from May 18-28 and June 13-23.