A Pabillonese among the thousand best students in Italy: on 12 September, in the prestigious setting of the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, 23-year-old Alessio Marras was awarded the "America Giovani" award, an award that rewards his studies and is reserved for excellent recent graduates from Italian universities. Alessio, a student of the University of Cagliari, finished his three-year course of study in Languages and Cultures for Linguistic Mediation with 110 cum laude, with the thesis "African-American vernacular English and hip hop: sociolinguistic analysis of Southern rap", whose speaker was Professor Daniela Francesca Virdis. A totally unexpected award for the young man: «I was not aware of it, and perhaps for this reason too - he confides - the satisfaction is greater. This award also does not admit applications and this means that hard work and sacrifice, in the long run, pay off ».
Scholarship
In addition to the award parchment, there is also a full-coverage scholarship to benefit from the free master of the Italy-USA Foundation in "Leadership for international relations and made in Italy": a higher education course recognized by the UN and which internally it will have high prestige teachers such as ministers, diplomats and journalists. During the award ceremony, the founder and other people who hold important roles within the Foundation alternated their interventions between emphasizing the merit of the students present and delivering the award certificates.
Obtaining this recognition of this level is one of those things that mark a life: «First of all, it is an indelible memory», Alessio reflects. «I had the opportunity to see the Italian institutions from the inside. I would like to underline the importance of meritocracy and self-denial because often, to us Sardinians, everything seems so distant and complicated, but historically we have shown that we can live up to the rest of the world. Surely this award also represents a stimulus to commit myself more and more, given that the sky is the limit ».
Now the master's degree
For the brilliant student of Pabillonis it is already time to set goals for the future. In the first place is the achievement of the master's degree in Conference Interpreting: «It represents the starting point for everything else».
Diplomatic passion
Alessio has clear ideas and would like, in his own small way, to contribute through diplomacy to make the world a better place, giving back a little of what, having been born in the first world, he was lucky enough to receive without effort. "I would like - he concludes - to work as an interpreter at the European institutions, or as an ambassador, given that mediation and dialogue represent the best tool for conflict resolution and international relations".
Giovanni Scanu