Ep. 2 - Valentina Imbeni, Founder and Head of La Scuola Artwork

Letters to Italy

Letters to Italy by Sara Marinelli is an eighth-part series about the impact of Covid-19 on Italian immigrants in the Bay Area. How did Italian expats feel when they received news of their country being the epicenter of the pandemic in the Western world, and how did it affect their distant relationship to home? At the intersection of personal memoir and documentary, each episode features conversations with an Italian expat to hear how the pandemic reshaped their life in the U.S., and how they tried to remain connected to Italy in a time of crisis and forced separation. Conversations bring up questions of belonging, resilience, community, and how to transform challenges into possibilities.

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Letters to Italy

Ep. 2 - Valentina Imbeni, Founder and Head of La Scuola

May 21, 2021 • Valentina Imbeni • Season 1 • Episode 2

The second episode of "Letters to Italy" by Sara Marinelli features Valentina Imbeni, founder and head of La Scuola International, an Italian-American school in San Francisco fostering the Reggio Emilia's approach to education. Valentina grew up in Bologna, and has lived in the Bay Area for twenty years.

La Scuola is one of the few schools in San Francisco that offered in-person classes after the first wave of the pandemic. Valentina shares the challenges and efforts to keep the school open, and recounts of her connection to Italy during the peak of the crisis.

Episode notes

Producer/Editor: Sara Marinelli
Mixing consultant: Rebecca Seidel
Sound design: Sara Marinelli
Intro and outro music: “Hopeful Motivation” - James Yan
Website: https://podcast.saramarinelli.com
Website for Sara Marinelli: www.saramarinelli.com
Website for La Scuola: www.lascuolasf.org

This series was made possible thanks to the support of COMITES of San Francisco and the Italian Consulate of San Francisco, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.