Maria R. Iusco
Senior Lecturer & Faculty Director of Salerno and Siena (Italy) Study Abroad Program
Hispanic and Italian Studies
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Contact
Building & Room:
1832 UH
Address:
601 S. Morgan St.
Email:
About
I have been teaching Italian language and culture at the University of Illinois since 1999 and I absolutely enjoy it. I also love taking students to Italy each summer and introducing them to the transformative experience of living in a different country, becoming familiar with the extraordinary diversity of its cultures, people, food, and ways of life. In my very first semester and all the semesters after, I organized one-week educational travel to Italy for our students and I did that until 2002.
In 2002 the Italy program was officially offered for credits, and I became the Director of Study Abroad Italy Programs for the Study Abroad Office. I have had the amazing pleasure of teaching and accompanying hundreds of our students to Florence, Rome, Siena, and Salerno for the past two decades. The program in Italy now offers seven credits in six weeks and the students frequent officially accredited institutions. Personally, I recruit students to the courses of our department’s Basic Language Program that are offered in Italy. I help our students search for scholarships and I write letters of recommendation for them. I assist them with navigating the entire process from start to finish. I want as many UIC students as possible, not just our students taking Italian, to be able to participate! Thus far I have accompanied over four hundred students abroad during the summer programs.
If you are a student and you are reading this, I sure hope that you will join us next summer!
Notable Honors
2008, Teaching Recognition Award, Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (UIC)
2007, Silver Circle Award, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (Nominated by 288 graduating UIC seniors)
2005-2011, Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award, UIC Italian
Education
Laurea di Dottoressa in Lingue e Letterature Straniere, University of Bari, Italy, 1997
BA, Dominican University (formerly known as Rosary College), 1987
Professional Memberships
- American Association of Teachers of Italian
- The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages