Marcello Rosino Memorial Scholarship

My grandmother's experience when immigrating to America made it nearly impossible for me to learn of my heritage until after she passed because of the discrimination she faced. My Nonna came to America when she was twelve, after the sudden passing of her father in the Italian suburbs. She had to learn English from scratch while attending schools that did not cater to her language barrier. As a result, she never wanted to teach my father Italian out of fear he'd be outcasted. When we moved nearly seven hundred miles away, that's when she decided over the summers she would try to teach me Italian. We started with the basics: the alphabet and numbers. After the three weeks we'd visit, I'd finally understand only to lose it months later after not practicing. It was a never ending cycle for five years until I finally attempted to learn on duo lingo to no avail. My Nonna broke her foot a few months later and eventually went from assisted living in her home to moving to a nursing home. My Grandpa, he refused to be called Nono because he didn't want his grandkids saying "no" to him, was there every day for her from when they opened to when they closed. The medications she was on caused her to have early forms of dementia and for two more years we saw her slowly drift away. This woman was a three-time breast cancer survivor and found out her arthritis medication was causing many of her memory issues. As soon as she got off of them, her hair grew thick and curly and she remembered me again when I saw her in December of 2019. Then COVID came, spread all through the nursing home, and she passed April 17th, 2020. This was the first immediate family death I had ever experienced. I didn't know what to do with myself and slowly gave up on everything. My band director would check on me often since he knew about everything going on. It took me about a year to be able to talk about it as I entered my junior year of high school. I was asked to be the pit conductor for our musical pit orchestra: Heathers. I loved it and gained a greater appreciation for musicals. I was lucky enough to go to a Performing Arts High school so I'd have that opportunity. I attended this school as a music student and for our senior projects, we have a capstone where we create a product to show all the work we've put in for our four years. I decided to write a musical: Maria. A love note to my grandmother, influenced by her experience as an Italian immigrant coming to America and all of the hardships she faced. It's not completely accurate as I used a lot of creative liberties, but it's based in the 40s and 50s era of music and a lot of fun: love stories, betrayal, gang alliance, and family themes. I used the opener "Maria" for many of my music auditions and got into great schools and received scholarships because of it. Since attending Western Carolina, I have had the opportunity to sing in Italian and have been learning the language more and more to understand composers and performers of the time. I have never felt closer to my grandmother than when I sing. I hope to complete my degree at Western with a fully-produced album for Maria as my senior capstone at the colligate level and perform the musical nationwide to help others connect with their Italian American heritage.