Sept. 20 is "Italian Day at CU" for Colorado high school students who will be treated to an authentic Italian dinner and college language classes courtesy of the University of Colorado at Boulder's department of French and Italian, the Outreach Grant committee and the Office of Community Affairs.
Students from four Pueblo, Colo., high school Italian classes will come to CU-Boulder to tour campus and the Anderson Language Technology Center (ALTEC) in the Hellems Arts and Sciences Building. They will attend Italian classes and visit with representatives from the admissions office and the Study Abroad Program.
Dinner will begin at 4:15 p.m. at Carelli's of Boulder, a restaurant serving specialties from various regions of Italy. CU-Boulder Professor Graziana Lazzarino will talk about Italian language and culture at the end of the dinner.
"Italian faculty members look forward to integrating the Pueblo students into classroom activities, and the trip to ALTEC will include an opportunity for both students and faculty to work with new Web-based language activities," said Pamela Marcantonio, instructor and language program coordinator at CU-Boulder.
Marcantonio and Lazzarino received a grant from the CU-Boulder Outreach Grant committee to fund the events. The Office of Community Affairs contributed additional funds for transportation costs.
All the members of the CU-Boulder Italian faculty will be involved, with high school students sitting-in on a variety of classes. The students will get an introduction to the learning style and expectations in college-level foreign language classes, and have a chance to talk with CU-Boulder Italian majors.
"Pueblo High Schools have an exceptional program in Italian, and, through this Italian Day event, we hope to encourage their students to come to CU-Boulder to continue Italian in our department," Lazzarino said.
A group of students from Denver West High School will visit CU-Boulder on Oct. 23 for a similar set of activities that will conclude around 1 p.m.
For more information on the CU-Boulder department of French and Italian, visit .