Italian Program Establishes Largest Cash Prize in Harvard’s Romance Languages Dept.

Harvard’s Italian Language Program established the largest monetary prize in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, a move that comes as the program faces declining enrollment.

The Diaco Prize for Best Composition in Italian will award $5,000 to concentrators or other undergraduates involved in the program for outstanding work. Nick C. Diaco ’04 and his family funded the award to encourage undergraduate travel to Italy.

Chiara Trebaiocchi, who runs the Italian Language Program, said the prize was established to “attract more students” to the program and celebrate “the ones that are already taking the courses and completing” the requirements.

“The change in the language requirement, and other situations throughout the year, have caused a decline in numbers in students enrolled in humanities in general — but also language courses,” she said, referring to an amendment to the College’s language requirement policy implemented last year.

“We are a small program compared to the past, but pretty strong in the sense that students who are taking Italian do love it,” she added.

Diaco, who created the prize with his family to honor his grandfather, wrote in a statement to The Crimson that he hopes the award will help students “recognize the impact” of Italian studies in Cambridge and abroad.

“Nearly a quarter century has passed since the summer I spent in Calabria at the De Rada Italian Institute in its incipient year,” he wrote, adding that this experience “completely changed my life.”

After his graduation, Diaco and his parents began the Diaco Fund to encourage undergraduate engagement with Italian language and culture through travel.

“Now in 2024, the Fund is still very much alive,” he wrote. “We hope with this new prize, alongside Chiara’s active leadership and energy, that we can garner more enthusiasm.”

Trebaiocchi added that she looks forward to the increased immersion opportunities for undergraduates studying the language.

“It’s great to study here, but it makes a difference when we’re able to experience it directly in the country,” she said.

The award requires undergraduate students to submit an original composition in Italian, evaluated for creativity, linguistic proficiency, and cultural engagement by a committee including Diaco, Trebaiocchi, and Elvira G. Di Fabio, Harvard’s former Italian senior preceptor.

Trebaiocchi said the composition is “mostly to showcase how Italian had an impact on your life and your study at Harvard.”

“Hopefully, all the students who are taking Italian might tell their peers about this award if they’re torn between studying Spanish or Italian,” Trebaiocchi quipped.

“I’m kidding — my colleagues in Spanish are amazing — I just want students to be passionate and involved and happy about exploring the new culture through the learning of the new language,” she added.

—Staff writer Luka Pavikjevikj can be reached at luka.pavikjevikj@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @LPavikjevikj.