Anyone who says that merit is no longer looked at in Italy does not know the champions of the school, i.e. the students awarded yesterday, November 14, with 78 scholarships provided by banks, companies and foundations for distinguishing themselves in competitions for the promotion of excellence organized by the Ministry of Education, University and Research. During the fourth edition of the project born from the memorandum of understanding between the Foundation for Financial Education on Savings promoted by ABI, the Miur and the Savings Museum, 146 thousand euros were assigned to the most deserving students.
The fourth edition of the event sets the record for the collection of scholarships which testifies to the interest of companies in this initiative: 90 thousand euros and 45 scholarships in 2016; then 88 thousand euros and 44 scholarships in 2017; 132 thousand euros and 66 scholarships in 2018; 146 thousand euros and 78 scholarships in 2019. In total, in its four years of life, the project has donated 464 thousand euros and 233 scholarships to talented young people.
“I Fuoriclasse della Scuola” promotes excellent students not only with cash prizes, but also with participation in an exclusive financial education campus organized by the Savings Museum and LIUC Cattaneo University from 12 to 14 November 2019. This experience aims to equip young talents of basic economic skills through interaction with academics from the world of economics, entrepreneurs and the multimedia tools of the Museum, as well as to deepen the approach to sustainable management of resources for individual and social development.
The project aims not only to involve an increasing number of supporters to reward as many young talents as possible, but also to put the high potential of the school in communication with the business world to encourage the growth of "Made in Italy” also in terms of human capital and with particular attention to gender equality.
It is the personal stories that add merit to the awards. For example, that of Vittoria Altomonte, a second year student of the Euclide Scientific High School of Bova Marina (RC) and finalist of the "Fuoriclasse della Scuola" project, who participated in the International Astronomy Olympics held in Colombo in Sri Lanka, where she arrived by winning the qualifying phases for the National Astronomy Olympics held in Bari from 18 to 20 April 2018. An achievement that makes Italy proud in an area that is often little known.
Or the story of Mattia Arundine, a student of the Alfonso Gatto classical high school in Agropoli (SA), who won the bronze medal at the physics Olympics held in Tel Aviv, Israel. The young man together with four other boys represented Italy and was the only one in the delegation from the south. An important result if you consider that there were 78 countries in the competition. Italy is one of the very few countries in the world to have a complete product chain in the aerospace sector as the third financier of the European Space Agency and first for number of astronauts of the current European Astronaut Corps. Economically, activities beyond the atmosphere move $383,5 billion globally. In Italy, the approximately 250 companies in the sector employ 6300 people (+3% of employees since 2014) and in 2017 produced a turnover of 1,9 billion euros. In this regard, in fact, a study carried out by ASI with the Department of Economics of the University of Roma Tre states that every euro invested in space activities produces 11 in economic return on the territory. In short, everywhere in the world it is easy to find an Italian who deals with space.
