Name: Virginia Benedetti
House: ADK
My name is Virginia Benedetti and I am a freshman at Florida State University. This is now my second semester at the ADK Scholarship House and I absolutely love it here! I was born in a small town called Piove di Sacco in Italy, but I spent the first eight years of my life in a village not that far away from it called Ponte San Nicolò. A lot of my extended family lives around the same area as well, so I was lucky enough to see my relatives fairly often. I then moved to Miami, Florida and started third grade in America not knowing a word of English. I spent the rest of my time in Miami until my senior year of high school.
My mom is an Italian teacher and she teaches both children and adults of all ages. One of her long-term students was actually a resident at one of the SSF houses in Tallahassee! My mom told her how Florida State University was my dream school, and one thing led to another and eventually I found out about SSF and all of its opportunities. I applied to the scholarship last April and was fortunate enough to get accepted!
I could not be happier to be living at ADK. The people that I have met here so far have been absolutely wonderful and welcoming, and despite my limited time here I already feel as if I’ve made a few friends for life. I adjusted to community living surprisingly quickly and I’ve already learned so much more than I would have living in a dorm or in an off-campus apartment.
I was recently accepted into my major of digital media production and am hoping to graduate a year early with the credits that transferred over from the IB program I took in high school. From there, the best I can hope for is finding a job in my field and seeing where it takes me. I am very excited about the opportunities I will discover after I graduate, but as for now, I am just glad to be living at ADK. I believed SSF has truly changed the course of my life and I could not be more grateful!
