MELBOURNE - Every year, a Victorian student who excels in Italian at VCE level and continues studying as part of their degree receives the Colin McCormick Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarship was named after Colin Angus McCormick, founding professor of the Department of Italian Language and Literature at the University of Melbourne.
This year, the privilege went to Caroline Emery, a 19-year-old who is very proud of her Italian origins. She describes herself as “an Italian-Australian girl with a childhood that could be described as a traditional Italian-Australian experience: always surrounded by Italian food, music and stories”.
“I loved listening to dialects and being exposed to customs and culture,” she continues.
Growing up surrounded by the love of her parents, relatives and maternal grandparents, Carolina and Pasquale Lucarelli, their Italian traditions won her over as a child.
“For me, learning Italian has always been a top priority, it was like oxygen,” she explains.
“I started studying the language when I was five, then continued in high school at Sacred Heart Girls’ College in Oakleigh where I found teachers, Lorenza Arestia in particular, who always supported and helped me.”
The school believed in her abilities so much that they put her name forward for the Colin McCormick Memorial Scholarship, which Caroline was awarded based on merit and a sustained interview with the scholarship selection committee, during which, speaking in English and Italian, she presented her future career plans.
“I told the committee that I always knew that whatever I did, I would use Italian and that I want to promote Italy so that future generations will continue to study the language and be interested in Italian culture.”
Caroline has big ambitions, and through her family history has become passionate about the topic of migration.
“It is an issue that is very close to my heart and after graduation I want to get involved in defending the rights of migrants, like my grandmother, who arrived in Australia when she was my age, 19,” she declares.
“She faced with great courage the journey and the difficulties of moving to a country whose language she did not even know and where she happened to be discriminated against.
“I believe that migrants deserve more recognition and appreciation for all the difficulties they have overcome and for all that they have been able to build.”
Through the scholarship, Caroline will receive funds to continue studying Italian. But for her, the validation of receiving an award was significant.
“For me it was an injection of self-confidence and added motivation to my commitment to contributing to the Italian-Australian community of which I am a part and of which I want to become a strong voice.”
Next year, through Monash University, Caroline will have the opportunity to experience life in Prato when she studies at the Monash campus there.
She is hoping to get a taste of life after graduation, when she would like to move and work for a period in Italy.
In the meantime, she continues to study the language, watching Italian films with her grandmother, listening to the radio and to her favourite singers, Måneskin and Fedez.
“It is a joy for me to cultivate my identity, I am very proud to be Italian and I want to give back to the community.”
