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Meet Neil Prestia, a senior here at UMass Amherst majoring in Finance with a minor in Italian Studies. From late-night gigs to early morning classes, Neil has found a way to balance his academic goals with his passion for DJing, a craft he has been perfecting over the past few years.

Along with the joy he finds in DJing, Neil’s appreciation for language extends beyond his studies. His admiration for Italian is deeply personal. His family comes from Sicily, but when his grandparents immigrated to the U.S., the language faded over time. Determined to reclaim his heritage, Neil has taken it

Congratulations to Andrea Tchesnovsky, a senior at UMass Amherst majoring in Comparative Literature with a minor in Italian Studies, for her selection as one of the winners of the campus-wide Why I Learn Languages essay contest! Originally from Sofia, Bulgaria, Andrea’s journey with languages is a beautiful story of identity, self-expression, and exploration.

In her essay, Andrea paints a vivid metaphor of herself as a house built with the languages she’s learned: Bulgarian, English, French, Spanish, and Italian. Each language represents a room or space in her life, shaping her identity and

Those who believe learning is a lifelong process should look to these two students as inspiration. The couple met in Herter Hall when Jean-Pierre Berwald was a professor for the then department of French and Italian, and Priscilla was taking language courses to help her in her studies of classical music. With her understanding of Italian, French, Spanish, and some German, she went on to host and produce a radio show for Amherst’s national public radio member station for over twenty years. After her tenure at WFCR she used her language skills in travel, planning excursions for private groups

Each year, UMass Amherst offers a study abroad exchange program with the University of Bologna-Forlì in Forlì, Italy. In spring 2024, UMass Amherst had the pleasure of hosting two students as part of this educational exchange. Professor Melina Masterson and fourth year Italian Studies major Ashley Rooney had the chance to sit down with one of those students, Sofiya, and ask her some questions about her experience through the UMass Amherst-Forlì Exchange. Sofiya is from Sicily, Italy, and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Interpreting in both Russian and English. When asked why she