By Claire Strother, executive broadcast editor
During the 2016 AP Italian exchange, a friend asked teacher Lyn Scolaro if she would be interested in receiving a $100,000 grant from Redoro Olive Oil, located in Verona, Italy, to assist with the expansion of the company in the U.S.
“She was really excited and told the future AP Italian students about it to see if it was something we would like to participate in,” Abby Grott, a current AP Italian student, said. “And we were all pretty stoked, so she accepted.”
Now, Prospect’s 13 AP Italian students are participating in an internship with the Italian company and helping with its expansion into the U.S., not only selling and tasting the olive oil, but also by pairing up to tackle specific jobs within the internship.
Grott, who wants to go into a field involving social media and marketing, and senior Jack Ryan are in charge of social media for the program. They have written a press release for the district webpage and pitched the project to various journalists to see if they are interested in writing about the program.
Senior Grace Godby, who wants to go into a scientific career, will be working on the cosmetic and environmental aspects of the internship program.
The goal of the specified jobs, beyond the initial tasting and selling of the olive oil, is to research and expand the students’ learning about their assigned job throughout the year. The skills are applicable in more ways in the future, which is why Grott is most excited for the internship.
“I’m looking forward to learning more and gaining hands-on experience from this company,” Grott said.
In March 2017 while on the AP Italian exchange in Verona, students will visit the company that they’ve been working with.
“[Going to Italy] will be really cool because we get to see everything they’ve been doing,” Godby said. “We see these bottles, but we never get to see where they’re made.”
In order to best represent the product and the company, the AP Italian students went to a training day Aug. 16, where they learned about the history of the olive, its significance in history, how olive oil is made, the timeline of ripening and picking an olive, how to professionally taste olive oil and the distinctions as to what makes one oil better than another.
Students are already using the training. On Aug. 21, Godby, Grott and senior Grace Connolly went to the Chicago Botanical Gardens as representatives for the internship. They met with Iron Chef Mario Rizzotti who had cooking demonstrations where he used and promoted the Redoro olive oil.
“It was really amazing because I got to be doing a school project while somewhere beautiful and nothing like a classroom,” Grott said. “Hands-on experiences like this one makes me so excited for what’s to come in the upcoming year.”
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Italian program introduces internship opportunity
August 24, 2016
Seniors Grace Connolly, Grace Godby and Abby Grott complete an interview at the Botanical Gardens. They were there for an Italian internship, which they were interviewed about. (photos courtesy of Abby Grott)
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