{"id":5684,"date":"2019-06-14T10:07:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=5684"},"modified":"2019-06-14T10:13:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:13:16","slug":"niche-knowledge-michael-videtta-18-on-the-power-of-bilingualism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/news\/niche-knowledge-michael-videtta-18-on-the-power-of-bilingualism\/","title":{"rendered":"Niche Knowledge: Michael Videtta \u201818 on the Power of Bilingualism"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a third generation Italian immigrant, it seemed only natural for Mike Videtta to want to study the language of his heritage. His formal foreign language studies, however, came about as part of one of URI\u2019s unique academic programs. Hailing from Canton, MA — a small town just south of Boston — Videtta entered URI as an engineering major, deciding to concentrate on industrial engineering. \u201cIndustrial Engineering is a good technical field if you want to run a business,\u201d he says, \u201cIt\u2019s helpful to learn how factories and people work, and how you can make things more efficient and look at them as processes.\u201d With both a passion for engineering and a foreign language he wanted to incorporate into his studies, Videtta enrolled as one of the first students in the Italian International Engineering Program (IEP) in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the unique aspects of the IEP curriculum is the mandatory year abroad, designed to help students cultivate their language skills and cultural competency. During his time as an Italian IEP student, Videtta had the opportunity to study abroad in Italy. He spent the year as an intern at a company in a village outside of Perugia that specializes in building and selling concrete mixers. \u201cI was speaking Italian every day,\u201d he states, \u201cIt was a moment where everything I learned was brought together.\u201d Videtta remembers an inspiring event that occurred while he was working with the company: \u201cI was filling in a sales position for someone who was retiring, and they offered me the job to also help build rapport with the U.S.,\u201d he relates, \u201cIt was cool to see the skills I learned in college come together for the benefit of this very niche position.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduating from URI in December 2018 with a B.S. in industrial engineering and a B.A. in Italian, Videtta now manages a rapidly growing painting company, a trade he came into from his past experience. \u201cEngineering definitely plays a role in the organization part of the job,\u201d he explains, \u201cI also speak Italian on the daily with my employees. Even though they mostly speak Spanish and Portuguese, we can understand each other pretty easily since the languages are really similar.\u201d To future students, Videtta has this to say: \u201cTo people who are new, don\u2019t feel pressured to go into just any field. You should focus your education and lives on something you\u2019re passionate about\u2026 The skills you learn in the humanities will help you live a happier life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

~Written by Chase Hoffman ’21, Writing & Rhetoric and Anthropology Double Major<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a third generation Italian immigrant, it seemed only natural for Mike Videtta to want to study the language of his heritage. His formal foreign language studies, however, came about as part of one of URI\u2019s unique academic programs. Hailing from Canton, MA — a small town just south of Boston — Videtta entered URI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[215,218,85],"class_list":["post-5684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-iep","tag-italian","tag-languages"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5684"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5705,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5684\/revisions\/5705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}