News - April 28, 2008

SU Florence campus sets the stage for student day festivities

study abroad florence

Students, staff, faculty, and host families alike were enthusiastic about the first edition of the SUF Student Day Celebration. While the SU Florence campus has long recognized the accomplishments of its students and offered an end-of-the-semester party, the Student Day Celebration was an auspicious beginning to a new tradition, combining various awards and activities to celebrate student achievements during the semester.

The celebrations began at 4pm in the SUF Art Gallery with a special opening of the high-profile exhibit A Selection of Works by Oliviero Toscani. This was followed by another art exhibition in the studio spaces on Piazzale Donatello, with student artwork from the various disciplines. An impressive array of work—selected from drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, sewing, and metalsmithing classes—was exhibited throughout the studio spaces. The show was well-attended by the SUF community, and many students brought their host families.

At 6pm the focus moved to the Villa Rossa, with an award ceremony for outstanding students from the Internship Program, the Volunteer Program, and the winners of the Coluccio Salutati Award. Not without some nervousness, the Coluccio Salutati finalists read their essays to an appreciative crowd. The youngest guests invited to the celebration—a group of Italian elementary schoolchildren—were thrilled to receive certificates and prizes as finalists in the SUF-sponsored Dr. Seuss Creativity Contest.

The annex garden set the stage for the production of this semester’s I Giullari, the widely popular campus theater group made up of SUF students and led by Prof. Eric Nicholson in a production entitled The Grand Theater of the World.

The celebration ended with dinner and music under the stars for all in the Villa Rossa garden. SUF Director Barbara Deimling says she is extremely happy with the results of this first edition of the Student Day Celebration, encompassing the many areas of student achievement. “It is important for students, faculty, and staff alike to pause for a moment and to acknowledge the achievements that the students have accomplished during the semester, showing their development in the process of understanding and engaging our host culture more deeply.”