Students’ later careers

Information about the careers of our students in the early years following the Trust’s foundation in 1989 is anecdotal.  Every effort is now taken to keep in touch with students and encourage them to promote MSMT. Former students believe that their bursaries played a big part in equipping them for future careers, as the following examples show.

Two students from the 1999 intake were in business in 2011. Federico Peretti, from Servigliano, was working in Italy for a company that designed and produced self-service machines, electronic signalling equipment and access control systems. Federico then moved to Germany in 2013, working as an electrical engineer in Munich and finding English very important for his work. Claudia Piermarini had become the owner of an agricultural business and found English essential for dealing with manufacturers.

An investigation of students from the 2001 intake, undertaken in 2011, revealed that some had continued with academic careers, such as Alessandra Perugini, from Fermo, who was finishing a PhD in neuroscience in 2011 and looking for a post-doctoral position in Europe or the USA. Eleonora Diamanti, from Montefortino, was doing a PhD in humanities at the Université du Québec at Montreal. She planned to continue working in the academic milieu. She said: “Even if I’m studying in French, English is always an essential asset, especially here in North America, for communicating with people and for travelling.”

In contrast, Chiara Marchetti, from L’Aquila, was a safety consultant, working with factories in Abruzzo. “I use English for work just sometimes, only when I have to translate international laws for my job.”

Alessia Abrami, a student in 2003, has a special reason for being glad she learned English. “It allowed me to find the love of my life, he is Australian and we are married now!” she reported in 2013. She had also put her knowledge of English to good use professionally. She studied business at university, did an exchange programme in Finland, and obtained a Masters degree before travelling to Australia for an internship.

On her return to Italy, Alessia eventually joined the staff of KPMG, one of the Big Four accountancy firms. “My knowledge of English helped me a lot to get the job I have and helps me every day at work.”

Francesco Trivelloni, who had a bursary in 2005, had become deputy mayor of Fontanellato, the town near Parma that contained a PoW camp, by 2011. Francesco came to the annual MSMT lunch in London in 2012 and, in his official capacity, invited supporters to join in the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Italian Armistice in Fontanellato in September 2013. Seventy members took up the invitation and the weekend was a tremendous success. A similar celebration was held in Fontanellato in 2018 for the 75th anniversary, again at the invitation of Francesco who by this time had become mayor. Ninety members took part.

Michele Ronchini, also from Fontanellato, studied at  Oxford House, Wheatley, in 2006. After a first degree at Parma, he moved to Bologna for a Masters in civil engineering, a course conducted in English. He graduated at the end of 2014, after completing a thesis on seismic engineering. In 2016 he joined a work group of the Monte San Martino Trust, with a view to making the Trust better known within Italy.

From the student intake of 2007, at least three were making their careers ín the law. By 2013, Giuseppe Cigarini, from Carpi, Modena, was working in Milan as a trainee lawyer, having graduated at Bologna university in 2010. His work required him to use English, which he first learned during his MSMT bursary. Luca Scagnoli, from Sant’Elpidio a Mare, near Fermo, continued his studies in law and by 2013 was approaching his final exams. He had also spent a year, through the Erasmus project, at the Nicolaus Copernicus university in Torun, Poland. “The possibility that you gave me in 2007 was really important for my life and for the person that I became,” says Luca.

A third lawyer from 2007 is Giulia Mattioli, who was the recipient of a special three-month bursary awarded to mark the granting of the Trust’s 300th bursary. Giulia spoke, in excellent English, about her experiences at the annual MSMT/Fontanellato lunch that year. She says:” I was a bit frightened talking in front of lots of people that I didn’t know, but it was amazing. I can still remember the emotion that I felt after my spoke. You gave me a chance of a lifetime, which grew me as a person.”
By 2012, Giulia, who still keeps in touch with her host family in London, had graduated with a first class honours degree in Administrative Law.

Another 2007 student, Nermina Delic, from Comunanza in the Marche, graduated in linguistic mediation for business at Perugia university in 2011. She then embarked on a Masters in Foreign Language and Cooperation at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, which she was to complete in 2013. She was at intern at the Italian embassy in Sarajevo in 2012.  In 2013 she moved to London to work as a finance and ICT manager. Nermina renewed her association with the Trust as a volunteer and then became the first former student to become a trustee.

Simona de Lauretis, from L’Aquila, had just completed her first year at university when she came to London on a bursary in 2007. She then did both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the Universita` dell’Aquila and, by 2013, was specialising in energy systems optimisation and management at the Ecole des Mines de Paris. ” I use English every day because it is the language of the majority of scientific and technical articles and books,” she says. “English will surely be a working language for me in the future.”

Ludovica Censi (2014) was in her first year at university in Rome in 2016 on a scholarship, studying biomedical engineering. She was also playing the piano and attending the Academy of Music in Fermo,  where she lived.

Giulia Andreoli (2012) also comes from Fermo province. She graduated in Oriental Languages (Chinese) at “Ca’ Foscari” University of Venice and  spent almost one year and a half in Asia, studying as an overseas student in China, South Korea, Taiwan.  She planned to develop her professional career in the linguistic field, as a translator, an interpreter, a teacher or a cultural mediator. She says that, without the experience of the bursary, she would not have been capable of obtaining the right score for a lot of foreign university applications.