The Vittorini Fund was established by the America-Italy Society of Philadelphia (AIS-Phila) in honor of the memory of Professor Domenico Vittorini, a long-time member of the Romance Languages faculty, to support a student studying Italian at the University of Pennsylvania, who decide to study abroad in Italy, either in the summer or during the fall/spring semester. The Vittorini Prize is managed and administered by the America-Italy Society of Philadelphia, whose representative presents the awards at an annual ceremony held at the end of the spring semester. Marked by a cultural event in Italian Studies and by the participation of the Office of the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia, the Vittorini reception is an occasion for all Italian students and faculty at Penn as well as members of the America-Italy Society to celebrate students' interest in Italy and Italian culture and reaffirm the warm relationship between the University and a major Italian-American cultural organization in the Philadelphia community.