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news
Chair
teaches with amoré
By Joe Licavoli
On-line Forty-Niner
Growing up in Florence,
Italy, Carlo Chiarenza, always hoped he would combine his
love of teaching with the Italian culture.
In 1999 Chiarenza
came to Cal State Long Beach to become chair of the fairly
newly established George L Graziadio Italian studies department.
The chair was established
with contributions of the Italian American Community of Southern
California, said Chiarenza.
A banker from Imperial
Bank, George L Graziadio contributed $500,000 to create the
department now in place, Chiarenza said.
Chiarenza, a former
professor at Hunter College in New York, was able to apply
his love of teaching and the Italian culture through his involvement
as the director of the Fulbright program in Italy. As such,
he internationalizes his curriculum.
The Fulbright Program
was established in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between
the people of the United States and other countries, with
the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills, according to
the Fulbright awards Web site.
Through this idea
Chiarenza has helped to set up a summer program in Italy for
CSULB students.
"For the first
time, we are offering a summer semester in Florence with Cal
State Fullerton and San Diego State and we will take about
30 students to Italy," he said. "They can take 10
units there, ranging from language to cinema and from art
history to political science. In addition they will take several
field trips and live the dolce vita (the sweet life) in Florence
for two months."
As far as classes
at CSULB, Chiarenza takes a fun approach to teaching Italian
by incorporating the culture. He said he believes all of the
other teachers share his philosophy.
The language is
geared to be fun, though foreign languages can also be a bit
difficult, he said.
"Italian is
a difficult language because of the grammar but it is easier
than French or German and if you know Spanish it's quite easy,"
said Chiarenza.
Currently Chiarenza
is teaching a course on Italian cinema that is getting quite
popular, growing from 12 students in 1999 to 70 students this
semester, he said.
"Teaching
cinema is perhaps the best way to communicate the culture
of a country," Chiarenza said. "I end up teaching
about history, anthropology, art, literature and politics.
I love dispelling some of the stereotypes about Italy."
One of Chiarenza's
favorite aspects of Italy is the people.
"It's hard
to say my favorite thing about Italy, but it's probably the
humanity of the people there and the relaxed way of life,
which doesn't mean that they don't work. They do, but they
know how to use their free time better than Americans,"
said Chiarenza. "And, of course, the culture which is
on every corner, the food and the coffee. It is virtually
impossible to get a real espresso in this country."
Though his love
of Italy is encouraging to the department there have been
a few challenges. One of the biggest challenges Chiarenza
has faced as department chair was getting the bachelor's degree
approved for the department because it took so long, he said.
His second biggest challenge was convincing Graziadio to invest
in Italian studies and generating enthusiasm towards Italian,
said Chiarenza.
The next step for
Chiarenza and the Italian studies department is to gain more
students, offer more scholarships and establish a master's
degree in Italian.
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