UNM is aiding in the recovery of L’Aquila, Italy, after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the city on April 6.
UNM will provide a new academic home for at least two displaced students from the University of L’Aquila this year, thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the National Italian American Foundation.
Dante Di Gregorio, assistant professor in the Anderson School of Management, helped organize the exchange program. He said UNM has pre-screened two Italian students, but officials are still working out details of the arrangement.
“It’s pretty typical for universities like UNM to have exchange agreements with foreign universities, which allow students to pay tuition at their home institution while they’re studying abroad,” he said. “There are nearly 100 different schools that we have as exchange partners. L’Aquila was not an exchange partner of UNM, but through this program we’re treating them as if they were.”
Umberto D’Alba is studying nursing at the University of L’Aquila. He has to ride the train for 9 hours in order to attend classes and said many Italian students are struggling to continue their education after the disaster.
“The earthquake ruined our school year, because there was no sense of organization in the aftermath,” D’Alba said. “Now we go back and forth between home and school to take tests. Class was cancelled, but we still try to take the tests to recuperate some part of the year.”
According to the University of L’Aquila’s Web site, over 27,000 students attended the university. Almost all of its buildings were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake.
“Some of the worst damage took place right at the university,” Di Gregorio said. “There were several students who died, and most of the university is shut down this year. For the short- to medium-term, the students are really facing a crisis.”
According to a press release from NIAF, the organization is working with four U.S. universities to provide scholarships for up to 200 students in a program called Adopt-A-Scholar. The program includes tuition, textbooks, international travel and living expenses.
In addition to the Adopt-A-Scholar program, the partnership between NIAF and the U.S. Department of State has initiated programs to support the region and the University of L’Aquila. According to NIAF, U.S. technology is being used to construct new “inherently-flexible, modular multipurpose centers” to meet the demand for buildings such as dormitories.
The U.S. Department of State has also created an exchange program for leaders of the University of L’Aquila, which will bring department heads and officials from L’Aquila to New Orleans and other U.S. cities to analyze how American universities recovered from natural disasters.
“We will know in the coming months whether the programs at L’Aquila will be running soon or not,” Di Gregorio said. “We still don’t know if students will be able to complete their studies at L’Aquila or if they would effectively just end up transferring (to the U.S.) to complete their degrees. A lot of that depends on what happens to the university there, and the desires of the students.”
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Di Gregorio said the L’Aquila tragedy may result in better international relations for UNM.
“I’ve always wanted to see us do more in terms of international exchanges,” he said. “While we can help out in a small way by accepting two or three students this year, hopefully it also has benefits for us in terms of creating linkages to a new area for UNM.”
Joey Trisolini contributed to this article from L’Aquila, Italy.
