BRATTLEBORO — World Learning has established a scholarship in honor of Alvino and Beatriz Fantini, who have a combined 98 years of dedicated service to the organization, and will recognize them at a banquet this summer as part of the 50th anniversary celebration for the School for International Training (SIT).
“I am so proud and deeply appreciative of the Fantini family for nearly a century of combined service to World Learning,” said president and CEO Donald Steinberg.
The Alvino and Bea Fantini Scholarship will help international students, especially those from underserved populations and the global south, participate in SIT Graduate Institute programs. World Learning now aims to raise more than $100,000 in honor of SIT's 50th Anniversary, in order to endow this scholarship fund and ensure that the Fantinis' legacy endures.
Alvino Fantini, now professor emeritus, has been a senior faculty member since SIT's establishment in 1964 and helped turn the Sandanona estate into the School for International Training. He currently serves as education consultant to the Federation of The Experiment in International Living, as director of the World Learning institutional archives, occasional adjunct faculty and lecturer, and an international consultant.
Beatriz Fantini, director of the Language and Culture Department at SIT Graduate Institute, has worked at World Learning since 1966. She has served in various capacities, including as a Spanish teacher, a teacher trainer and a supervisor for both SIT Graduate Institute and SIT Study Abroad. In 2004, she was awarded the World Learning Presidential Medal in recognition of her contributions and commitment to the World Learning mission.
The Fantinis have lived in the Dummerston area for 50 years. Their children, Mario and Carla, attended Dummerston School and graduated from Brattleboro Union High School. Beatriz Fantini has served on the boards of the Brattleboro Music Center and the Asian Cultural Center and currently serves on the boards of the Windham World Affairs Council and Brattleboro Community TV.
The banquet in honor of Alvino and Bea Fantini will take place Aug. 9 during the SIT 50th Anniversary Celebration Reunion Weekend Aug. 8-10 at SIT's Brattleboro campus.
Founded in 1964 by Gordon Boyce and Jack Wallace, SIT has transformed the lives of thousands of students through its undergraduate, graduate and professional development programs.