Credits
· Filming, production, and editing of the introductory video, Ciak! videos, and Interviews by Jarlath Waldron;
· Filming of Interviews in Italy by Daniele Ferrero;
· Soundtrack in introductory video, Ciak! videos, and Interviews by Stefano Marchese, Radici (2013), available at http://www.stefanomarchese.org;
· All images and photos in the slide show presentations are from Shutterstock.com, unless otherwise indicated on the slide.
Acknowledgements of support
I wish to thank the Provost’s Office and the Dean’s Office for their generous support, in particular Kathryn Lynch, Dean of Faculty Affairs, Andrew Shennan, Provost and Dean of the College, Richard French, Dean of Academic Affairs, and Ravi Ravishanker, CIO and Associate Dean of WellesleyX.
ItalianOnline has also received grants from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Blended Learning Initiative at Wellesley College, a project founded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I am grateful to Evelina Guzauskyte, Faculty Director of the Andrew W. Mellon Blended Learning Initiative, and David O'Steen, Associate Director of the Andrew W. Mellon Blended Learning Initiative, for their continuous support and valuable advice.
Thanks
This project would not have been possible without the exceptional contributions and expertise of Laura O’Brien, Research and Instructional Librarian, and David O’Steen, Associate Director of the Andrew W. Mellon Blended Learning Initiative at Wellesley College.
I am particularly grateful to Jarlath Waldron, Instructional Media Director, who devoted endless hours to the filming, production, and editing of all videos and interviews.
I also wish to thank David Ward, Professor and Chair of the Department of Italian Studies, for his continuous encouragement and support of this project.
The Italian Consulate of Boston (Consolato Generale d’Italia a Boston) -- in particular Giuseppe Pastorelli, Consul General in 2014, Nicola De Santis, Consul General in 2015, and Domenico Tekker, Director of the Ufficio Scolastico-- has also supported this project by offering the precious collaboration and expertise of the Italian Consulate Lecturer Dr. Lucia Toppino. Dr. Toppino has worked at content development and revision of all units during the month of June 2014. I am grateful for her invaluable contribution.
Cynthia Delia Coddington has edited all the online material. Her professional contribution and expertise have been vital to the project, and I am most thankful to her for the dedication, commitment, and enthusiasm she brought to the project.
Francesca Guiso, a rising junior at Wellesley College and a native speaker of Italian, has worked continuously on this project over the course of the past two years. She has contributed in many different ways; she has developed all Timed Transcripts and all Supplementary exercises and has recorded the audio files of many grammar charts. I am most grateful to Francesca for her many contributions.
Francesco Castellano has devoted many hours to the recording of audio files. His flawless Italian pronunciation and beautiful intonation have given much variety to the program.
The Podcasts owe much of their creation, design, and implementation to Iva Gishin, Instructional Designer. I thank her for her expertise and dedication to the project.
A special thank you goes to all the students who acted in the Ciak! videos for the enthusiasm, sense of humor, and love of the Italian language that they brought every week to the video shooting sessions:
Alessandra (Alessandra Saluti)
Anna (Uyen Anna Le)
Eleonora (Eleonora Saravalle)
Emily (Anna Kosaurova)
Francesca (Francesca Guiso)
Giovanna (Giovanna Acton)
Laura (Laura Stabili)
Rachele (Raquel Zepeda)
Roberta (Laura Fandino)
Rosa (Rosa Hargrove)
The following Italian native speakers gave the voices for the Podcasts:
Costanza Barchiesi
Eleonora Saravalle
Francesca Guiso
Julia Tazartes
Silvia Pera
Cynthia Delia Coddington and Iva Gishin are the native English speakers in all Podcasts.
Grazie mille! to my daughters Chiara and Livia Graf who acted as Italian visitors from Italy in Ciak! videos 10.1 and 11.1.
Finally, I would like to thank all the colleagues and friends who were interviewed for this project:
Mattia Acetoso, Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian, Boston College
Teresa Alfarano, owner of Sciuscià, shoe shop in Alba (Cuneo), Italy
Emanuele Capoano, performer and Italian language instructor
Angelo Guida, cook and instructor in Italian cooking at the University of Massachusetts at Boston
Stefano Marchese, musician
Maurizio Marello, Mayor of Alba (Cuneo), Italy
Salvatore Mascia, Founder and President of CONTINUUS Pharmaceuticals
Franco Mormando, Professor of Italian, Boston College
Sergio Parussa, Associate Professor of Italian Studies, Wellesley College
Giuseppe Pastorelli, Consul General of Italy, Boston
Eugenia Paulicelli, Professor of Italian, City University of New York
Isabella Perricone, Lecturer in Italian and Italian Cinema, Tufts University; Director of Parla Presto Language School
Dante Roscini, Professor of Management, Harvard Business School
Massimo Scavino, Assessore all’Ambiente (Council elected member, responsible for environmental policy), Alba (Cuneo), Italy
Lucia Toppino, Lecturer, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Stefano Vaccara, journalist and historian, director of La Voce di New York
David Ward, Professor of Italian Studies, Wellesley College
Daniela Bartalesi-Graf (aka Sandra Milani)