A NON Italian Professor applied for and received a Title III Grant, which enabled her  to research Italian families, and stage a Celebration in the middle of Oklahoma!!!!!!!!!

That's a rather strange and wonderful series of events, and makes you wonder why that thought didn't occur to any other Italian Professors, and what other opportunities are under our nose, that we are overlooking.

Do we have a Resource Center where these efforts are collected, for the benefit of those who are interested in such matters, so we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel, but can use those efforts to improving the wheel?

Notice how the event attempts to dilute Negative Stereotypes, yet is Not Filiopiestic.

The Vista
University of Central Oklahoma
by Lauren Pulsinelli - Senior Staff Writer
Edmond,OK,USA
December 07, 2004

By watching Joey Tribiani on the show "Friends" or the "Sopranos," many Americans only gain a stereotypical view of Italian culture.

For a broader view of Italy, there will be a "Celebration of Italian Families," a free event from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7 in the Virginia Lamb Living Room in the Human Environmental Sciences Building.

The celebration sprang from Dr. Lori Beasley's, of Human and Environmental Sciences, inquiry to learn more about Italian families. She submitted a grant to research Italian families and received a title III grant, which enabled her to investigate Italian families.

"People in Italy are more of an aging generation, meaning the young people are leaving; and those who stay in their 20s and 30s are not getting married and starting families," she said.

"The elderly have to hire people to take care of them and there aren't many child care providers as the percentage of younger children are decreasing.

"At the celebration will be a display of 25 different topics by individual students from Beasley's family life education class.

Beasley said students were able to cover a wide variety of topics because "Italians have a lot of traditions.

"Italian weddings, deaths, sports, authors, games, family vacations and leisurely time are some of the topics that will be discussed and viewed on Tuesday.

"The student doing games will have Italian games set out for people, and the student doing weddings will have a wedding book for people to look at," Beasley said.

Melissa Jones and Fran Alavi, family and child studies graduate students helped in making the celebration possible."They organized, planned, found resources and are doing self and pier evaluations," Beasley said.

Jones said because of the new PASSPORT UCO program, "The whole entire university was discovering Italy, so we decided to get started."

To find informative topics for students Jones went online and typed in keywords and used Web sites and journal articles.

"We came up with creative ideas like making a children's book from the point of view of an Italian coming to American and the sites they could see," said Jones.

Jones also teaches preschool students and had them make an Italian flag with their hands and feet that will also be displayed at the celebration.

Jones said her major, "Teaches how interacting with families can be effective.

"Beasley said, "Everyone is welcome to come (to the celebration) and most students invited their families to come."
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Celebration of Italian Families' to highlight traditions, lifestyles.
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