The 2013 Simple Gifts Fellowship Grants were recently awarded. Four recipients will be having truly enriching summer experiences. Susan Kennedy, a technology educator at Clinton High School, is one of the thrilled grantees. Her grant title is, “STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Marvels from the Middle Ages to Today.”

Kennedy is off to a four-week adventure in Italy. She plans on studying the influences of many inventions and work that Leonardo da Vinci had on modern day science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. From her first hand experience, she plans on exploring with her CHS technology students the link from our past to our present day. Leonardo da Vinci made his mark in so many different ways throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance and she plans to investigate his impact. She will be visiting the Museo Leonardiano in Vinci, Italy as well as the Museo Nazionale Della Scienza e Della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy and other cities that da Vinci had influences. While in Milan and Turin she will visit the libraries to see da Vinci’s original notebooks. Her last stop will be Genoa, Italy. While there, an important stop will be the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia or Italian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Kennedy also hopes to establish an exchange with the Italian Institute of Technology. We know it will be a wonderful experience and look forward to hearing about the experience, said Margaret Turlington, with Simple Gifts.