ROVIGO – A school from Rovigo and two from the Padua area this year get on the podium of the “An enterprise to be rewarded” competition, an initiative with which Zico and Confcooperative Rovigo present and reward the best creative business projects born in the classroom.
The awards ceremony was held on Thursday 6 June morning in a crowded Duomo cinema theater in Rovigo, in the presence of the participating classes. In this new edition, the prize for high schools was taken home by the fifth AS class of the “De Amicis” institute in Rovigo, while the second B of the institute won the prize dedicated to lower secondary schools. “Zanellato” from Monselice. Finally, the jury prize was awarded by the audience, through an original real-time vote, to the “Girardi” institute in Cittadella, also in the Padua area.
“Today there is a strong issue of young people who do not complete their studies or who, after finishing school, do not work. I believe that projects like these can respond to the need to help young people express and realize their qualities and ideas, not only in the business field”, commented Fausto Merchiori, councilor of the Cariparo Foundation. The foundation itself supported Confcooperative’s “Startup & Reconnect” path with its “Actively” call: divided into three meetings, conducted by Francesco Casoni, Chiara Facchinetti and Massimo Zavattiero of Zico Scuola, it guided the classes in the creation of products and services and in the construction of innovative and sustainable business projects. Overall this year there are around 200 projects born in the laboratories in 27 institutes in the provinces of Padua and Rovigo.
At the event on June 6th, 9 projects were in competition: “Cycle Path Gym”, designed by the third A of the lower secondary schools of San Martino di Venezze, to make the Adige embankment and the new cycle path accessible with a path dedicated to well-being and leisure; “Sinem”, proposed by the second B of the “Zanellato” comprehensive institute of Monselice, imagined a horticultural space open to citizens and ecologically sustainable; “Four Comics” of the second B of the “Belzoni” institute in Padua, imagined a place where people can work and relax, study and play in a stimulating and innovative environment; “Sound Café” of the fourth ASIA of the “Alberti” institute in Abano is a virtual bar in the metaverse, dedicated to musicians who want to meet here to participate in concerts, jam sessions and music lessons; “Rebirth” of the first E of the “Belzoni” institute in Padua focuses on urban regeneration to transform old buildings into new ecologically sustainable constructions; “L’oca Loca” of the fifth As of the “De Amicis” institute in Rovigo is a park with various outdoor activities, accessible and inclusive, which the authors of the project imagined in the area of the current Langer Park in Rovigo ; “Open Garden” of the fourth A of the “Bocchi” classical high school in Adria is an inclusive non-profit space where you can cultivate the land and share the harvest with people in need; with “Money Wave” the third BA of the “Girardi” institute in Cittadella has designed a community in which companies and young people meet and create new job opportunities; to conclude the “Cotton Walls” project of the first of the Itis “Viola” in Rovigo, which transforms cotton clothing waste into materials for sustainable construction.
The “Young Creative” award was awarded to the “Zanellato” of Monselice for the particular attention to environmental sustainability, as well as for the lively and careful presentation by the enthusiastic creators. “L’oca Loca” of the “De Amicis” of Rovigo won the “Innovators of tomorrow” award thanks to the originality and friendliness of the project, the great care in the presentation and the ability to imagine a new place of sociality in a green space of the city. The popular prize, however, was awarded by the students with their own vote and crowned the proposal by Cittadella’s “Girardi”, which is very attentive to the needs of the youngest, with the highest number of preferences.
The jury that evaluated the projects was made up of Eleonora Costa, photographer and graphic designer, Andrea Micheletti, engineer and founder of Meeple Srl, and Luca Paparella, architect from Rovigo and founder of Architetti per Esigenza. The morning was led by Francesco Casoni and Chiara Facchinetti, who also took stock of a school year with Zico Scuola: “A year in which we encountered above all your desires and hopes, which you shared with us and for which thank you”.
