Stefano Coppa, Chief of the Instituto Dante Alighieri in Nicaragua and Honduras, CEO of Dante in Linea and former Honorary Consul General of Italy in Honduras, has been awarded the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia, one of the most prestigious distinguishing marks the President of the Italian Republic can bestow.
On October 11, our Director, Stefano Coppa, was honored with the title “Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia” the Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy by the Ambassador of Italy in Guatemala, Paolo De Nicolo, on behalf of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
This award is given by the Italian President, after a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a consultation with the Council of the Order.
As the Ambassador remembered, “the Order of the Star of Italy was founded in 2011 with the aim of rewarding those who promote positive bilateral relations between Italy and the nation in which they operate.”
Stefano Coppa, Chief of the Instituto Dante Alighieri and CEO of Dante In Linea, and former Honorary Consul General of Italy in Honduras, was awarded with this prestigious mark thanks to his contribution to the diffusion and spreading of the Italian linguistic heritage, being Italy his motherland.
Coppa, a real enthusiast for politics and greatly engaged in teaching Italian, has spent his last 20 years creating Italian schools following the highest international standard.
In 2004 he created the first Italian school in Nicaragua, called Fundación Dante Alighieri to express both the worth and cultural legacy the “Sommo Poeta” Dante Alighieri left to Italy and the world.
Not only he cared about creating a school with native Italian teachers brought from Italy every year, but it also established the first Official CILS Certification Center (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language), having a partnership with the Università per Stranieri di Siena.
The CILS certification is the first in Italian to have applied the six levels of linguistic and communicative competences of the language, following the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), and it has also offered specific certifications for foreign workers in Italy.
The main goal was to train the future leaders of the Latin America region, giving them the opportunity of completing their studies in Italy to practice and develop what they learnt in school or university. At the same time, this process helped strengthen the commercial relations between Italy and the whole Latin America Region.
Together with the Italian Embassy in Nicaragua, Stefano Coppa was successful in getting dozens of students to specialize in Italian universities in many different academic areas, who today are professionals with open opportunities thanks to the study of Italian.
Recognizing the worth of language education, Coppa also started the first school in the region allowed to prepare and certify Italian teachers, being the official center for the DITALS Certification. DITALS Certification is the internationally recognized diploma, issued by the Università per Stranieri di Siena, to teach Italian as a FL and L2.
This diploma, through an oral and written exam, gives the teachers all the practical and theoretical competencies necessary to effectively teach Italian to foreigners, and help them get to the level of Italian they want to achieve.
Besides having supervised the activities of the Dante Alighieri school as its headmaster, Stefano Coppa participated in many events, hosted by different universities, as a speaker, talking about a variety of topics like, for example, Futurism.
He also took part in different Education Fairs, where he brought his offer of Italian classes as the first step in the promotion of Italy as a destination for both studies and professional specialization for Latin Americans.
Following his success with the Fundación Dante Alighieri in Nicaragua, he decided to open in 2010 a second branch in Honduras, a country that has close relations with Nicaragua, inaugurating the Instituto Dante Alighieri, in which he widened the formative offer of the school and also opened the second Official CILS Certification Center in partnership with the Università per Stranieri di Siena.
Breaking the borders with Dante in Linea
Stefano Coppa has also published articles in different national and international newspapers, stressing on the importance of learning a new language, not only for academic purposes but also to broaden working opportunities.
He was also interviewed by the Ca’ Foscari University about his third big success: the online Italian school “Dante In Linea” you can read the interview here
Visionary and with the mission to continue training students all over the world, in 2014, Coppa inaugurates the first Italian language school, specialized in E-Learning Platform, DANTE IN LINEA, to eliminate the barriers of space and time that stand in the way of the possibility of studying the Italian language.
Born and raised in Italy, Coppa was also appointed Honorary Consul General of Italy in Honduras, for his great passion to lead Italy towards excellence.
In his work as Consul, he hosted the Italian Consulate and the Italian-Honduran Chamber of Commerce at the headquarters of the Italian Consulate to promote Sistema Italia, a single place where the elements of Italianness were mixed to enhance the commercial ties between the two countries.
It is a great honor for the whole Dante in Linea team this recognition to our Director, who has always been bringing Italian closer to you!
