The university orientation course that the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, in conjunction with Telecom Italia, has organized in Colle di Val d’Elsa, near Siena, will begin on Saturday, July 11 in a full-fledged campus reserved for the 100 best students from Italy’s schools, including Italian schools abroad, who are about to embark on the last year of high school. The course will consist of special classes held by an illustrious teaching staff and in moments dedicated to further discussion and cultural exchange.
This is the second course for this year. Previously, between June 28 and July 4, 100 students were accommodated in Cortona, near Arezzo, while three more sessions are scheduled respectively in Camigliatello Silano (July 21-27) Rovereto (September 1-7) and San Miniato (September 5-11). Overall, 450 students will be involved.
Selected for their academic merits, the students will be accommodated entirely free of charge in Colle di Val d’Elsa and may attend a week’s worth of work and research orientation encounters. It will be a stimulating experience that will enable the young students to focus on their personal interests and to make an informed choice regarding their future thanks to their contact with professionals, scholars and professors especially gathered for this occasion.
Moreover, for the first time this year, partly thanks to the technological platforms provided by Telecom Italia, another 1,500 students recommended by high school headmasters will have the opportunity to follow a selection of lessons from the orientation courses from home over the web.
The course will start on Saturday at the Teatro dei Varii and will then continue at the Palazzone. The teaching staff involved includes physicist Fabio Beltram, jurist Sabino Cassese, mathematician Flavio Pressacco, computer scientist Fabrizio Luccio, endocrinologist Aldo Pinchera, art historian Massimo Ferretti, philosopher Eugenio Lecaldano, historian Tommaso Detti, mathematician Daniele Mundici, chemist Vincenzo Barone, engineer Massimo Bergamasco, philosopher Anna Loretoni, bioengineer Mauro Giacca, art historian Antonio Pinelli, latinist Gian Biagio Conte, literary critic Piero Boitani, astrophysicist Francesca Matteucci, economist Giorgio Donna and jurist Vittorio Angiolini. Additionally, seminars and tutoring activities will be held by graduate students from the Scuola Normale Superiore.
The initiative, confirming the commitment of the Scuola Normale di Pisa and Telecom Italia towards developing young intellectual talent in Italy, is being met with increasing interest by high schools, which for this edition have recommended 500 more students compared to last year. Specifically, the highest number of nominations came from northern Italy, with 776 candidates, and more specifically from Lombardy (223 students), Tuscany (179 students) and Veneto (148 students). A considerable number of students were also nominated in Lazio, Campania, Apulia and Sicily. More information on nominations and the complete list of selected students may be requested from the Scuola Normale Superiore.