News - December 11, 2009

SUF announces outstanding students for fall 2009

SU Florence is pleased to announce the twelve recipients of this semester’s Academic Excellence Award in the categories of Outstanding Students, as well as the first winner of the Studio Arts SUF Purchase Prize Award.

Academic excellence was honored in five categories: the Internship Program, the Option II Program, the Volunteer Program, the Lettore per il Giorno, and the prestigious Coluccio Salutati Award. The names are as follows:

Internship Program
Meagan Brown, University of Denver
Jennifer Chen, Harvard University
Myra Ruth Sanders-Lyle, University of Colorado at Boulder

Option II Program
Sierra Green, Gettysburg College
Amanda Levin, Rutgers University

Volunteer Program
Alaina Mallette, Syracuse University

Lettore per un Giorno
Danielle Gonnella, Gettysburg College
Courtney Raneri, Gettysburg College

The Coluccio Salutati Award, the highest SUF student recognition, honors students with high academic achievement and engagement with the Italian culture. Out of forty-eight nominations, thirty-three essays were submitted—more submissions than in any other semester in the past. Said Matteo Duni, coordinator of the faculty committee that judged the essays, "This semester the four winning essays reflect each a distinct, unique view of Italy, showing how the life and culture of the Italians can be perceived and understood in multiple ways. Some of them have chosen to focus on the small, often overlooked parts of everyday life—a street corner, a word or a turn of phrase—and managed to find in them an unexpected insight on Italy. Others have centered on more evident aspects of this country, from the complexity of urban space to the fight against the mafia in Sicily. The one thing they all have in common is the remarkable ability evidenced by the authors at bridging the gap between their own and Italian culture, reaching a deeper understanding of Italy and its people and thus truly accomplishing the ultimate goal of international education."

Congratulations to Grace Barkeley, Davidson College; Daria Foner, Princeton University; Vasiliy Lakoba, Syracuse University; and Isabel Miller, Grinnell College.

In addition to the academic excellence awards, this semester’s Studio Arts faculty also offered a formal recognition of excellence. During the Student Exhibition, which took place in the new SUF Art Gallery located on Piazzale Donatello, in addition to displaying student works from Photography, Printmaking, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Restoration and Fuji studios, a juried competition took place. The SUF Purchase Prize Award is a prestigious award in which one work from the exhibition will be bought by SUF and remain on campus, forming part of the SUF art collection.

The jury was composed of a select group of international artists and curators outside of SUF faculty: Paula Bortolotti, Art Critic and Curator; Valentina Gensini, Freelance Curator; and Alberto Salvatori, Director of the Marino Marini Museum. The jury voted anonymously and unanimously chose the same piece: a photograph by Lucy Cifferello, Loyola University. Cifferello won the 100 euro prize and her photograph will become the first piece of the permanent SUF Student Art Collecton and will be hung on campus for display. Jurists agreed they were convinced by “Cifferello‘s use of the formal structure in the spatial relationships of form.”

Says Nick Kraczyna, Studio Arts Coordinator, “This newly added activity brings a bit of professional reality into the academic structure, a bit of the future for those students that will pursue art as their vocation.”