Carlo Petrini: “Investing in scholarships means seeing the realization of a cultural and political change that students take back to their home countries”
For the first time, University of Gastronomic Sciences students holding scholarships have had the chance to meet their sponsors face to face. The opportunity came on Tuesday January 31, at a meeting attended by many scholarship recipients and representatives from the businesses, foundations and institutions that support the university in Pollenzo and help guarantee the right to study.
A number of people spoke during the afternoon’s event, which was opened by Piercarlo Grimaldi, the dean of the University of Gastronomic Sciences. “Scholarships are a concrete tool for democratizing knowledge,” he said, “and making them available makes it possible to select the best new gastronomes. The scholarships have also contributed to broadening the university’s international profile, bringing distant worlds closer and creating a cohort of leaders in local development.”
Silvio Barbero, UNISG’s vice-president, presented the figures relating to scholarships: “Since 2004, 214 students have benefitted from UNISG scholarships, from 42 countries—41% from outside Italy and 59% from Italy. During this time, €7.5 million of the UNISG budget has been allocated to supporting the right to study, of which around €2.2 million has come from the generous contribution of companies, foundations and other organizations. The main sectors in which scholarship recipients find employment after graduating are food and beverage management, communication, marketing and purchasing. In regards to geographical mobility, 73.2% of the Italian scholarship recipients stay in Italy and 26.8% move abroad, while out of the non-Italians, 57.8% have returned to their home countries, 21.1% have stayed in Italy and 21.1% have moved to another country.”
Diego Silva Dos Santos, a scholarship student from Brazil, then shared his experiences. “My story is that of a child who loved cooking and who had to learn how to get by at an early age,” he told the audience. “My father left us when I was 10, so with my mother at work it was up to me to cook for the whole family. At 14 I was fixing cars and then at 16 I started working as a baker. Then I found out about a gastronomy study project for people with low incomes, Gastromotiva, and through it I met Carlo Petrini. Thanks to him I heard about UNISG and I came to Bra on a scholarship. After graduating I’m going to go back to Brazil and I would like to change the world through food. I want to go back to work for Gastromotiva, teaching economically disadvantaged young people and working on an urban food garden project.”
A former scholarship recipient, Eugenio Signoroni, now an editor with the Slow Food Editore publishing company and responsible for the Osterie d’Italia guide, also shared his memories of being a student back when UNISG was in its early days. “I’m originally from Brescia, and when I was little I wanted to be a chef. That’s why I got involved with cooking at Vittorio Fusari’s restaurant La Dispensa, on the Iseo Lake. I heard about the university project there, before it had even started. I applied and thanks to a scholarship I was able to realize my dream. And I think this is one of the most beautiful projects Carlo Petrini has created.”
The next to speak was Giandomenico Genta, chairman of the Fondazione CRC, who recalled the foundation’s constant commitment to supporting the right to study and education, followed by Enrico Ancona, managing director of Imperia & Monferrina, who emphasized how important it is to have an understanding of food and its sources as a heritage that belongs to everyone. He said he hoped that the students would make every effort to grasp the energy that Pollenzo was able to offer.
The afternoon closed with the words of UNISG’s president, Carlo Petrini. “This meeting should become an annual event, and with an even more important format, because we’re talking about a key point of this university: the right to study, guaranteed thanks to the collaboration of companies, organizations and foundations. It should become an opportunity for those who support the scholarships and those who benefit from them to get to know each other, to share with our supporters what these young people do after they graduate. Generously investing in a project like this means seeing the realization of a cultural and political change that students take back to their home countries. But that’s not all: This university must do more, outside its walls. Pollenzo must be at the cutting edge, maintaining the excellence of its teaching, but at the same time it should guarantee students from all over the world the chance to learn remotely, becoming an online university and spreading its teaching to young people and food producers in their own countries.”
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