Carmel-Mantova Exchange Renewed

BY ERIC GROSS The Carmel-Mantova connection is alive and well!

A dozen young men and women from the small Italian community are in Putnam County this week attending classes at Carmel High School, spending time with host families, and visiting sites throughout the New York metropolitan area as part of an educational exchange.

Carmel students plan to travel to Italy next spring as part of the exchange originated by veteran teachers Ann Flynn and Philomena Ruggiero.

Last week, the CHS Italian-American Club hosted its annual faculty tea,

where students and staff had the opportunity to meet with their guests.

Diva Bedogni and Elisabetta Gavioli are chaperoning the Italian students in America. The trip is the second for the two educators from Mantova who last visited Carmel in 2007.

Bedogni described her visit “much better than the first time, because I remember so much about your pretty community. America has changed dramatically with the new President Obama. It’s important for our youngsters to understand this. We all hope for world peace. We are the ambassadors from a far off land and we are proud to be in the U.S. again.”

Top: The Mantova-Carmel connection is alive and well at Carmel High School as students and faculty from both sides of the Atlantic greet each other at last week’s party. Above: Thomas DeGrace and his mom, Denise, admire the handmade Thanksgiving arrangements created by the young man’s mother as a fundraiser. Gavioli said while the educational system in Carmel was “much ‘more large’ than in Italy, the systems are similar and different at the same time. We have learned how to speak English. It’s nice to see that so many Americans are speaking Italian. The schools in America are more advanced when it relates to technology. In our classrooms we don’t have the large numbers of computers and white boards that you have in America. Technology is very important. Our students share more of the computers.”

Flynn and Ruggerio welcomed the guests and encouraged continued exchange programs worldwide.

Flynn said, “book learning is critical but meeting and interacting with people from far-off lands made ed- ucation come to life.”

Ruggerio agreed: “There is nothing like face-to-face interaction. We learn so much from each other through dialogue.”

Thomas DeGrace, president of the Italian American Club, welcomed his mom Denise to the party who brought dozens of handmade Thanksgiving ornaments, cornucopia, and other dried floral arrangements that she personally created for the club. The holiday decorations were sold for $25 apiece and the money was turned over to the Italian-American Club for future programs and events.