Sicilian Culture: The News: NIAF Sponsors 40 Italian Students to Visit New York

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NIAF Sponsors 40 Italian Students to Visit New York
(WASHINGTON, DC - July 23, 2001) Forty Italian students attending universities throughout Italy are in New York City today and tomorrow, Tuesday July 24 to 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.
In New York City, 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 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 arrived in Providence, RI for three days to participate in the Foundation's 8th Annual Youth Retreat. At the retreat, the students learned about Italian American traditions and compared those traditions to their heritage, took a boat tour of the rivers of Providence and network with Italian American students. The students will then travel to Philadelphia and Washington, DC for the remaining six days (July 24-26).
NIAF welcome interviews with the students. Serena Cantoni, NIAF youth director is in NYC with the participants. You can reach her on her cell phone at 202/256-4743 or you can call Elissa Ruffino, NIAF director of public relations at 202/387-0600
A total of 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 .
The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC and dedicated to preserving the heritage of an estimated 25 million Americans of Italian descent, the nation's fifth largest ethnic group. Visit our web site at www.niaf.org.

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