Italian language education is on the rise in the U.S.

A teacher with American students. Photo courtesy of: iace.org.

The Italian American Committee on Education (IACE) has increased its initiatives to educate American elementary to high school students on Italian language and culture. One new program that began April 12, 2018 is a visit to PepsiCo Design & Innovation Center to learn from the PepsiCo’s Chief Design Officer, Italian Mauro Porcini. The program will focus on taste testing, use of advanced technology, and how these together create success in a multinational company.

IACE partners with a variety of other famous Italian brands to bring Italian culture to students. Other programs include Mangia sano e parla italiano (Eat healthy and speak Italian) at Eataly and Design the car of your dreams at Ferrari.

IACE’s efforts have shown great success in reaching more students. In the 2013-2014 school year, IACE supported 90 schools and educated over 22,000 students. This school year, 2017-2017, IACE now supports 189 schools and is educating over 50,000 students.

IACE is a non-profit organization based in New York to promote the study of Italian language and culture in the tri-state area of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. The organization is funded by an Italian Government grant and is supervised by the Consulate General of Italy in New York.

-Lauren Spinelli