East English Village students Nicholas Huey and Khariane Gray will be traveling to to Italy this summer.
Huey and Gray were only students in Detroit to be finalists of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation USA’s essay contest, a program open to 11th grade students in New York City, Los Angeles and Detroit.
The program selects five students from public schools from New York City, two from Los Angeles, and two from Detroit. To apply, the students had to research and write a 1,000-word essay on the Women of the Italian Renaissance, a representation of a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries.
The students will be participating in a month-long academic program based in Florence. These classes will be based on the evolutions of the Italian Renaissance and the composition of a college common application essay.
“I’m excited about it,” Gray said. “I think it’s a good opportunity.”
Added Huey: “I’m honored. I am excited to see the buildings and experience things in a different country.”
With them winning this competition it could be a great asset for them being accepted into colleges or universities. Gray wants to attend Howard University, and Nicholas’s dream school is the Berklee College of Music.
Upon completing the program in Italy, students will receive a certificate acknowledging their finalist status.
