MILAN, Italy, May 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Intesa Sanpaolo has been supporting the Intercultura Foundation for over 20 years in promoting international student mobility programmes. Thanks to the Group’s support, 800 students from all over Italy and abroad have been able to participate in study programmes in various countries around the world. This year, with the Bank’s contribution, 19 young high school students will study abroad during the 2023-24 school year. Together, the two organisations organised the event ‘Moving minds! Global education for the young people’, where they discussed interculturalism and the internationalisation of Italian schools in the setting of the Palazzo Belgioioso conference centre in Milan. The synergy between Intesa Sanpaolo and the Intercultura Foundation is in fact part of the group’s ESG commitment, which promotes – in line with the EU’s Strategic Research Agenda and the NRRP’s fourth mission – collaborations with schools and universities through joint programmes of scholarships, lectures, research support and international exchanges.
At the event, Elisa Zambito Marsala, Head of Social Development and University Relations at Intesa Sanpaolo, said that “the commitment to guarantee young people the right to education is a priority for us.” In Zambito’s words, “supporting young people’s access to studies and their informed choice of educational paths means preventing school drop-outs and consequently reducing social inequalities.” The opportunity of a study year abroad “is important to wake up, to get out of the daily routine and to see oneself from the outside, to understand that the whole world does not begin and end in Italy,” explained Roberto Ruffino, Secretary General of the Intercultura Foundation, on the sidelines of the event. “We live in a globalised world, but the school is not globalised, it keeps looking inwards at itself. So getting out of your own environment, seeing yourself through the eyes of other people, from other parts of the world, is a fundamental part of your education,” Ruffino stressed, adding that students “learn to fend for themselves, they don’t have their mommy and daddy looking after them. They have to fend for themselves in many situations, and that is the most important lesson they learn.”
Intesa Sanpaolo, Zambito added, has “always paid great attention to the training of young people, the development of transversal skills, and has always supported the internationalisation of schools, in order to enable young people to adapt to an ever-changing work environment, a commitment that we share with the Intercultura programme.” During the event, the students, accompanied by their families, received their Intercultura scholarships.
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