The Vittorini Fund was established by the America-Italy Society (AIS) in honor of the memory of Professor Domenico Vittorini, a long-time member of the Romance Languages faculty, to offer prizes for outstanding achievement in Italian course work at the University of Pennsylvania. The prizes are intended to encourage undergraduates in the pursuit of majors, minors, and careers centering in Italian culture. The Vittorini Prizes are funded, managed, and administered by the America-Italy Society of Philadelphia, whose representative presents the awards at an annual ceremony held at the end of the spring semester. Marked by a cultural event in Italian Studies and by the participation of the Office of the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia, the Vittorini reception is an occasion for all Italian students and faculty at Penn as well as members of the America-Italy Society to celebrate academic excellence and reaffirm the warm relationship between the University and a major Italian-American cultural organization in the Philadelphia community.
All undergraduate students taking Italian courses, whether as electives or as part of a major or minor, qualify for the awards listed below.
- Excellence in an Essay on Italian Literature or Italian Culture
- Eccellence in Advanced Italian
- Excellence in the Second Year of the Study of Italian Language
- Excellence in the First Year of the Study of Italian Language