2026 Palazzo Strozzi High School Renaissance Award
Open to 11th-grade students in participating schools in New York City, Los Angeles, and Detroit. Test information and deadlines are available here.
Selected winners will travel to Italy for four weeks next July 2026 to study the Renaissance.
All eleventh graders in the participating schools listed below are invited to compete for the 2026 Palazzo Strozzi High School Renaissance Award. Participants are required to register (Step 1), then complete the assigned readings from selected books (Step 2) and take the in-class hybrid test, which includes multiple-choice and short-answer questions (Step 3).
All students who wish to participate in the competition must register first.
This award is organized in partnership with the New York City Department of Education, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Detroit Public Schools.
2026 Participating Schools
New York City:
Digital Arts & Cinema Technology High School, Brooklyn
CSI High School for International Studies, Staten Island
DeWitt Clinton High School, Bronx
Long Island City High School, Queens
The Facing History School, Manhattan
Los Angeles:
Felicitas & Gonzalo Mendez High School
Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts
Detroit:
Cass Technical High School
East English Village Preparatory Academy
After taking the test, the appointed faculty at each school will submit the six best-scoring tests to the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation USA Advisory Committee. The Committee will review each test and conduct interviews with all selected finalists. After evaluating both the test results and the personal interviews, the Committee will select the two strongest candidates from each participating school as winner recipients of the 2026 Palazzo Strozzi High School Renaissance Award.
All finalists will receive a certificate acknowledging their participation, an achievement that can be included in college applications. The 18 competition winners, together with four chaperone-teachers, will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Florence, Italy, during the summer of 2026. Above all, the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation USA hopes that participation in this program will offer a once-in-a-lifetime educational experience that inspires each student to pursue future goals in the spirit of the Renaissance.
Awardees will take part in a month-long academic program in July 2026 based in Florence. Classes will be held at Palazzo Strozzi* and taught by the four chaperone-teachers. Classes will explore the evolution of the Italian Renaissance and will also guide students in writing their College Common Application essay. Beyond the classroom, the group (students and teachers) will study on site at important cultural locations in Florence, Tuscany, as well as in Milan, Venice, and Rome.
*Palazzo Strozzi, a quintessential Renaissance palace, former residence of the Strozzi family, and now a major cultural center, is a landmark example of Italian architecture. Today it hosts exhibitions spanning diverse artistic periods and regions.
The Palazzo Strozzi Foundation USA thanks all interested students and warmly welcomes their participation.
This award is made possible through the generous support of our individual and corporate sponsors.
The Palazzo Strozzi Foundation USA fully funds this award.
