Saturday, February 10, 2007

Washington U's "Italo" Club Needs Help from "The Hill"

The ANNOTICO Report

 

"Italo" is a Student Club at Washington U in St Louis, that wisely decided against merely having "meetings", but instead are attending events, where they can practice their Italian, and also learn more about the Italian Culture, like Opera, not the cooking events they have had :)

 

"Italo" has had meetings with the Italian Club of Saint Louis and  Italiano Per Piacere (Italian for Pleasure).

Any body with Helpful ideas??  Does St Louis U have a similar Club? Would a Collaboration be helpful??

 

My Research shows a  Sarah Duve as Music Director at  KWUR at:  music1@kwur.com; Office (314) 935-5952

 

Renaissance: Rebirth of Italo

Student Life

Independent Newspaper of Washington University

In St Louis since 1878

By Jackie Allen

February 9, 2007

 

Although the official goal of Italo is to promote Italian and Italian-American culture on campus, this club goes further than that.

"It's also a resource for language students who want the opportunity to become more involved in the culture outside of class or opportunities to practice language outside of class," said Sarah Duve, a senior and charter member of the group. "And [it's an opportunity for] Italian Americans or even Italian nationals that want to connect with the Italian community in St. Louis in ways that don't necessarily involve language."

Italo has grown considerably since SiSi Marti began the club in the spring of 2004. The group ran the Italian language table La Tabla in Holmes Lounge, co-sponsored trips to the opera every February with ArtSci Council and even organized a bocce tournament against Italian groups from Saint Louis University and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville last spring.

Also popular with members and their friends are cooking nights.

"We'll have 20 people in the basement of Lopata kitchen talking, cooking and that's really fun," said junior Shannon Petry.

Monthly dinner meetings occur on The Hill with Italian Club of Saint Louis or Italiano Per Piacere (Italian for Pleasure).

"Basically it's a nice, leisurely four course Italian meal and then they'll have a speaker come in and lecture," explained Duve.

So why haven't we heard more about Italo? One problem is meetings, because there aren't any.

"We always got discouraged when not that many people showed up at the General Body meetings," recalled Duve. "So when I was vice-president [Fall 2005], the president decided we just won't have meetings, we'll just do events."

Like many small groups, Italo has also had problems with leadership succession. With no one able to lead the club earlier this semester, Italo went inactive until Petry took over.

"I started t alking to people in class and was asking what was going on," she said. "That's when I figured out that they needed someone to take over the club."

So what is in store for Italo, besides another trip to the opera on Feb. 11?

"At this point, I think my first priority is going to be getting La Tabla back together," said Petry. "I think if you're a Spanish major, you have a lot of ways built in to get involved in the Hispanic community or the Spanish-speaking community. . . For Italian, our community is really each other."

 

 

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