Italian Program and Civic Engagement 2017

The foreign students attending language and cultural courses at the ACCADEMIA ITALIANA continue with their collaboration with Legambiente. These civic engagements provide  the students with an understanding of community and culture enhancing them during their Study Abroad Program.

The students are involved in various activities with local non profit organizations to identify community needs and to provide services which help to improve community development.

 The students from San Diego took an active part in a project  in cooperation with Legambiemte which had organised a series of four projects.

  

The first meeting took place during the students'  Italian lesson : the volunteers from the association presented Legambiente Onlus, it's campaigns, history and values. The students were also introduced to the activities they would be involved in.

Then on 15 June  'Clean The Med' . Here the students  took part in the cleaning, monitoring and analysis  of debris from one of the cities  Beaches ' The Baia'. The students picked up plastic bags, plastic and glass bottles,empty cans and cigarette ends from the picnic area.

The students were all enthusiastic for taking part in this ecological project.

Connor a student from The University of San Diego, in California,told us abou his involvement in this project together with Legambiente Onlus and the Fisherman's Club Salerno.

To follow on 22 June, the students  visited the Archeological Park in Pontecagnano (Salerno) accompanied by Cristina and Moreno from the Circolo OcchiVerdi Legambiente Pontecagnano. After being told the history of the Park and the archaeological ruins ,the students also visited the social vegetable gardens and orchards in the area then took part in a workshop where they learnt to plant and cultivate fruit and vegetables . Planting basil and tomatoes.

The last appointment was on Friday 23 June when the students went to the Oasi Dunale di Paestum which is directly in front of the old wall on the west side of the ancient city of Paestum.

Here the students met the President of the Association Pasquale who was ,from the very start, able to attract the students interest increased by the magnificent atmosphere. Pasquale told them all about the history of the Oasis and of the different environments you can see there.

The Oasis covers an area of 20 acres and includes three different types of environment: A small beachy area with typical plants that grow in sandy areas, then the area of Mediterranean vegetation  bushes and plants common to this area and the third area  

a wood consisting mainly of Pine trees  hence the name 'Pineta'.

Legambiente organize the cleaning and up-keep of the Oasis by permission of the local council of Capaccio Paestum. The sandy dunes are home to some rare examples of flowers and plants. The vegetation, called PSAMMOFILA. offers the perfect surrounding for various organisims.

A large part of the Oasis made up of the most ancient sandy dunes is home to  the 'Pineta'  where we can see examples of the domestic pine ' D'Aleppo'.

These were all  planted by man in the 50s to protect the the cultivated areas from the salty winds blowing in from the sea.

The undergrowth is very poor in vegetation because of the little sunlight that is able to shine through and also bacause the ground is almost 

totaly covered in dead pines which have fallen off the trees therefore this causes the ground to become sterile of vegetation except in a few clearings where little plants have been able to push through the soil.

At the end of their visit the students dived into the beautiful blue water of the Cilento Coast.

Apart from these various projects the students were involved in a language program at the ACCEDEMIA ITALIANA which concluded with a closing ceremony and celebration for having reached their objectives.