Matilda Raffa Cuomo: The Driving Force Behind AP Italian
 

Matilda Raffa Cuomo, Founder and Chairperson of MENTORING USA, has long been active in promoting the health and well being of children and families. As First Lady of New York State from 1982 to 1994, Mrs. Cuomo chaired and served as chief spokesperson for the New York State Decade of the Child initiative, co-chaired the Governor’s Commission on Child Care and chaired the New York State Citizens Task Force on the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.

Mrs. Cuomo has been at the forefront of New York State’s programs to promote international collaboration and understanding with Italy and other countries. She co-chaired, with the Director of Economic Development Vincent Tese, New York State’s International Partnership Program (IPP). As part of IPP, she directed the activities of “Due Case, Una Tradizione,” a program with Italy initiated and established by her husband, Governor Mario M. Cuomo, in 1987 to promote and strengthen bonds with Italy through cooperation in economics, science, technology, health and education.

To inform and inspire young Italian Americans from Kindergarten through grade 12 about their Italian heritage and culture, Mrs. Cuomo initiated the project between the New York State Education Department and the Italian government to develop the “Italian American Study Guide: Looking Back Moving Forward: as a celebration of the Christopher Columbus Quincenntenary”. Today, the Italian American Study Guide will be utilized in New York City Schools and the teachers are given instruction at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College/The City University of New York from a grant sponsored by former-New York City Speaker of the Council, Hon. Peter F. Vallone. Other highlights of the “Due Case” program included a keynote address in 1987 by Mrs. Cuomo at the first Italian Language Conference in Rome and four medical symposia she initiated and co-hosted with Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche in 1988 and 1990 in Italy and the USA.

For three years (2000-2003) in the spirit of “Due Case, Una Tradizione,” Dr. Lee Jones, Executive Director of the College Board appointed her to chair the US National committee which she organized consisting of NIAF, UNICO, OSIA and the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI) for the establishment of an Advanced Placement Program for the Italian language in high schools in the USA.

The College Board required $500,000 for the AP Program; with the support and leadership of President Berlusconi and Minister Mirko Tremaglia, the Italian government made a commitment of $300,000, and $200,000 was donated equally by NIAF, OSIA and UNICO. The AATI and the committee, especially her daughter, Dr. Margaret Cuomo are responsible for attaining the commitment of the required 500 High Schools nationally to offer the AP Program in Italian. This has been a labor of love for three years to promote the Italian language in the USA.

Mrs. Cuomo led New York State’s participation in the Untied Nation’s 1990 World Summit for Children and the U.S. ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Mrs. Cuomo has traveled to Africa on behalf of UNICEF and has been associated with the Day of the African Child since its inception in 1991. In 1994, she was invited to the Republic of Malta by the International Steering Committee of the United Nations to launch the International Year of the Family.

In 1987, Mrs. Cuomo founded the innovative New York State Mentoring Program (NYSMP), the first national, statewide school-based intervention program that links adult volunteers mentors on a one-to-one basis with children at risk of dropping out of school. In 1994, the New York State Administration eliminated the New York State Mentoring Program. Building on this effective mentoring model, Mrs. Cuomo established MENTORING USA in 1995 to replace the NYSMP. The MUSA program is national and international; MUSA/Italia has programs in ten cities in Italy.

The MUSA program is now included in the continuum of care services provided by HELP USA, founded by Andrew Cuomo in 1986, it is the nation’s largest provider of transitional housing and comprehensive independent living programs for homeless families.

For over thirty years, Mrs. Cuomo has been deeply involved with the fight to prevent breast cancer and has expanded her involvement to become a national spokesperson and inspiration in the crusade against breast cancer. She began as a volunteer of the America Cancer Society in Queens and now serves as a lifetime Board Member of the National American Cancer Society and as a Board Member of the President’s Council of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. As first lady she initiated and directed many medical conferences between the USA and Italy C.N.R. (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche). In the year 2000 she developed medical conferences at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, involving The Brescia Medical Center, the American Cancer Society and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In the year 2001, she was the American coordinator for the second Women’s Health Medical Conference held at the Brescia Medical Center. Mrs. Cuomo serves on the Board of Directors of Dr. Umberto Veronesi’s Foundation in Milan.

Mrs. Cuomo was bestowed the title of Commendatore in the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy and has received numerous awards for the commitment as a volunteer on behalf of children and families. They include the 1998 Sir Harold Acton Award from New York University at Villa La Pietra, the University’s center in Florence, and the 1997 Donna Roma Award. She was the first American to receive the International Telamone Prize for Peace in Agrigento, Italy (1995). She is also the recipient of the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award from Family Circle, the Queens Division “Gold Medal Award” presented by the National American Cancer Society, the National Italian American Foundation’s 1993 Humanitarian Award, and a special Exemplary Mother award from American Mothers, Inc. On Columbus Day, 2002, Mrs. Cuomo was presented with a prestigious medal from Minister Mirko Tremaglia for her effort to promote the Italian language in the USA. Consul General Giorgio Radicati offered Mrs. Cuomo the Medal for the Partnership between Rome and New York City on the Eve of the Third Millennium. UNICO National awarded Mrs. Cuomo their 2003 Rizzuto Award.