Illustration, Photo: Shutterstock
Italian Sofia Corradi, the creator of the Erasmus education program that enabled millions of young people to study in other European countries, has died in Rome at the age of 92, Italian media reported.
Sofia Corradi, who would later become a professor at the University of Rome, received a prestigious American Fulbright Scholarship as a student, which took her to Columbia University in New York, where she graduated in law.
Proposed and launched an exmodify program
When the Italian education system did not recognize her American degree upon her return, she proposed an exmodify program, which she eventually launched at the European Union level in 1987.
Since then, around 16 million students have participated in the program, according to the Erasmus website.
The program, managed by the EU, encourages closer cooperation between universities and higher education institutions across Europe.
“Mama Erasmus”
Sofia Corradi, or “Mama Erasmus” as she was called, declared that the idea for the program, born during the Cold War, was her “personal pacifist mission.”
For Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who credits her with “the birth of Generation Europe,” she “inspired the lives of millions of young people who traveled, studied and embraced different cultures,” Hina reports.
“She dreamed of a European youth that would be enriched by its diversity. Millions of students owe their horizons to her,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared on the social network X.
News
Leave a Reply