The Palazzo Strozzi High School Renaissance Award is in its fifteenth year. The Award was originally created in partnership with the New York City Department of Education, then expanded to Los Angeles Unified School District and Detroit Public Schools. The purpose of the program is to help eleventh grade students, in specially chosen inner city public high schools, to strengthen their college applications and gain admittance to the universities of their choice. During the first week of July the awarded recipients, eighteen students with four chaperones, travel to Italy for the four weeks all-inclusive international trip which is entirely paid by the Foundation.
The winners study in Florence at the New York University campus, Villa la Pietra. During their stay they visit international renown Renaissance sites in Florence and nearby cities in Tuscany; they also travel to Venice, Milan and Rome. Throughout their Italian stay students write their common application essays with a selected ESL chaperone/teacher guidance. The essay will be ready for submission by the end of the program.
This award was featured in a front page story of The New York Times which included a photo of a rendition of Leonardo’s Last Supper reenacted by the students.
