Guidance: the fourth edition of Merit and Social Mobility has now been launched. The Sant'Anna's project to accompany 360 students from fragile backgrounds towards university choice. Applications deadline Sunday, December 18th
The new selection of MeMo - Merit and Social Mobility, the project of guidance and coaching towards university choice for students of merit from fragile socio-economic backgrounds, opens. The initiative is aimed at more than 360 students attending the fourth year of high secondary schools throughout Italy and is promoted by the Sant'Anna School. The deadline to apply is Sunday, December the 18th, 2022.
The project, whose activities take place during the 2022/2023 school year, involves the mentoring of 360 students by alumni of the Sant'Anna School - in collaboration with the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Conference of Colleges of Merit - toward the choice of university studies, through multiple channels and tools. Lectures, discussion meetings, round tables, test simulations for admission to university studies and customized mentoring paths are some examples of activities that characterize MeMo. The program is free of charge and also includes thematic meeting and discussion moments of a residential nature lasting 2 days in Pisa in spring and summer 2023. The entire course is based on peer involvement and mutual exchange among female and male secondary school students, university students and alumni, as well as teachers and representatives of the world of work. During these meetings, in addition to deepening school subjects, there is a discussion of the tools and possibilities that university studies offer.
According to the OCSE report (2018), students, whose parents have low educational qualifications, have almost a 70 percent chance of having a low educational qualification, compared to an OCSE average of 40 percent, and a less than 6 percent chance of having a higher educational qualification (OCSE average 12 percent). Still, students whose parents, on the other hand, have high educational qualifications possess about a 60 percent chance of maintaining high educational attainment, and a 10 percent chance of having a lower educational qualification than their parents, in line with the OCSE average. These data attest to poor mobility between generations, in educational terms, which can also translate into poor mobility in economic and social terms: those at the bottom of the social ladder stay at the bottom and those at the top stay at the top, with not only a "sticky" floor effect, but also a "sticky" ceiling effect.
If conditions of origin therefore play a significant role in educational, work and life choices that also and especially influence the stage of choice for further study, with the risk of limiting the affirmation of the central role of university education and training, the goal of the Merit and Social Mobility project is to provide all the useful tools for further study at university, once high school is over. To give students the opportunity not only for personal growth, but also for their contribution to the development of the community and the country.
Attention to social mobility is an identifying element of the Sant'Anna School, which, in the Italian university system, has the role of guaranteeing an education of excellence to talented young people, regardless of their family and social backgrounds. For the Sant'Anna School, merit and social mobility are therefore a strategic priority to achieve its institutional mission.
More information on the MeMo - Merit and Social Mobility project and how to join, for educational institutions, is available HERE.
