Two scholarships with the aim of developing innovation in SMEs, established with the contribution of Cassa Padana. And dedicated to the best graduates of the master’s degree in Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, on the Cremona campus of the Catholic University. These are the scholarships awarded yesterday, Thursday 13 June, in the cloister of Santa Monica. «We are very grateful to those who have a closeness to the territory that has never been concretely touched before now» explained Annamaria Fellegara, dean of the Faculty of Economics and Law. «Cassa Padana has recognized in us an individual deserving of trust for the method, technique and care with which we follow young people. The second thank you is to you, students, and to your class. Alongside vertical skills, you have learned to work with others, to be sensitive and to know how to read phenomena. Our final thanks go to Professor Fabio Antoldi, to the other teachers of the course and to all the university staff who dedicate themselves body and soul to this wonderful campus.”
The awarding of these two scholarships, worth 2 thousand euros each, was not easy. «We were in great difficulty because the class expressed very high skills» explained Fabio Antoldi, coordinator of the master’s degree course. «The average of the exams and the content of the theses worked in their favor. But equally good were their classmates, among the first graduates in this new degree course which trains professional figures who are among the most sought after on the job market. Today human capital is by far the scarcest resource there is. Suffice it to say that in 2004 the Italian population between 25 and 35 years was equal to 8,600,000 people. Twenty years later there are 6,200,000. We have lost 24 percent of young people” comments Antoldi. «It is no coincidence that today there is a war on talent among companies. The demographic transition is one of the challenges that is destined to accelerate in the coming years. Therefore a bank that invests in young people, and allows them to best express their potential, is doubly meritorious. Because investing in young talent today is the best choice that companies can make. And by rewarding the talent of young people, the future is built.”
«We are really happy to be here, on the Santa Monica campus» said Andrea Lusenti, general director of Cassa Padana. «We care a lot because collaboration with important local institutions is very important for us. Young people are in our corners and at the center of our projects. My wish for you, who have obtained this recognition, is to maintain the commitment and dedication that you have shown in recent years also in the rest of your career and your life.”
Visibly satisfied, the two winners, both graduated with 110 cum laude, spoke about their experience on the Cremona campus. «At the beginning I felt I could be a valid competitor for this tender, but when the victory was communicated to me I no longer expected it» says Andrea Percudani, now a collaborator of the Research Center for Entrepreneurial Development (Cersi), who is based in Cremona, graduated in Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurship after a three-year degree, again at Cattolica, in Business Economics – Double Degree in International Management, in Piacenza. «I believe that there are at least three groups of people behind this result» continues Andrea. «My family, who supported five years of financial sacrifices to allow me to attend university and related experiences, such as the Silicon Valley Immersion Program, at the University of San Francisco, and Erasmus in Austria at the Management Center Innsbruck. Then there are the professors, who passed on their passion to me and made studying a passionate effort, a natural consequence of their love for what they passed on to me. Finally, my friends Nicolò Cassanelli, Giacomo Gambazzi, Alessandro Baiguera and Raffaele De Cesare, with whom I shared most of the group work during the years of my master’s degree.”
«The objective of my degree thesis was to investigate which evaluation model was best applied to a startup in the Cremona area» said Matteo Borghesi Alquati, now included in an Allianz talent program, after graduating and two experiences in Accenture and KPMG. «I deal with the analysis, planning and development of innovative projects, consistently with my studies. And precisely for this reason I would recommend this course, because it allows you to develop a way of thinking and working which, in a world like today’s, is a very precious resource.”
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