by MK
Every Saturday we’re spotlighting remarkable local females who could change the way we look at the world. This Saturday is Karoline Steckley and Denise Tecchio’s turn, the heart and mind behind the American Corner and the Italian – American Association of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
From English classes, to refugee support and community events and services, Karoline and Denise proudly carry the American flag in the Triestine community.
Where are you from?
Denise: I am from Cincinnati, Ohio and I’ve been living in Trieste since 1985. Trieste is the city I’ve spent most of my life in. I came here for two reasons. First, I came for love – I met my husband in Ireland and followed him here. And secondly, I was offered an internship at Illy. I should’ve stayed 8 weeks but I ended up staying there for 15 years. Eventually life happened, we adopted two children and I stayed home for a while. And once they were big enough, I started volunteering again and that’s how I discovered the American Corner in 2007.
Karoline: I started working at the Association in 2003 so off and on I’ve been here for about 19 years. I’m from Racine, Wisconsin, and I also came here for love. We are actually both still with the same people we came here for.
Denise: A rarity (laughs -ed.)
Karoline: I met my husband on a cruise ship and eight months later we were married. I was a French teacher in America so teaching here was easy – I just switched languages. I was lucky to start working at the Association right away and eventually in 2009 I became the director. Right after I asked Denise to stay as the place wouldn’t survive without her. She said yes and we’ve been making history ever since.
Denise: We eventually became the Association and the American Corner. The Association is the part with the classes and cinema and you have to be a member to participate. And the American Corner is under the US government so we offer many free and open to public events and initiatives.
Do you think American Corner and Association play an important role in Trieste?
Karoline: I think we definitely have a responsibility. We’ve always wanted to build a community and this is the place that helped me to adapt better when I moved here. I could come here, speak English, find books to read when I was overwhelmed with Italian language. I noticed that throughout the years people started seeing us as a point of reference.
What do you mean?
Karoline: When refugees started coming to Trieste in 2016 we wanted to somehow help them get involved with the community. Eventually we found a way to start offering English courses to them first as volunteers and later through a grant from the US government. And that made it safe for a lot of Triestini to do that too, in a way we opened their eyes to seeing refugees as individuals.
Denise: We were working on a lot of projects before the pandemic started. We got the refugee women take “time off” from their families and come here and do something worthwhile. At the same time local women would come and volunteer with them.
Fantastic.
Karoline: We do many things with the Triestine community as well. We involve everyone from little kids, to teenagers to senior citizens. Everyone is welcome here. We love working with all kinds of people and we are always doing something to try to integrate people and solve problems.
Denise: We recently started a ukulele club. It’s the cheapest instrument you can find and you can play anything on it. I bought mine in the States and Karoline got hers here and we have three at the Association for everyone to try. It’s a free course and open to everyone with classes starting in February.
You’re definitely making a difference in Trieste.
Denise: You know, we’ve been around for 60 years and people still say “oh, the consulate” because the Association hosted the consulate for years. Actually, the first American consulate in the world opened here in Trieste in 1797.
Karoline: American culture has definitely been part of Trieste for centuries. And during the War years the American consulate would offer English language classes here in Trieste, you could watch American movies, read American books – something that wasn’t easily available in other Italian cities.
Denise: We’ve had generations of people with the English classes. And the movie series which started in the 1980’s.
Karoline: About ten years ago we became more family-oriented. In 2010 we created the children’s and women’s library, we started organizing story times and play dates.
Denise: We’re the Nati per Leggere center but it became so popular we had to separate the kids who could walk from the ones who couldn’t. Of course, we haven’t restarted the Nati per Leggere as we’re waiting for things to get back to normal.
Karoline: We were actually the first ones to start doing story time here in Trieste as at the time it wasn’t common to study English before the age of 6. We started out with one group and then all of a sudden we would have one or two sections per day. Some months later, most other schools were doing it too.
Denise: When we started the women’s library we also started the women’s events. We didn’t have any funding for it so we asked the members if they could donate a book or money and that’s how we ended up with all of these books.
Well done!
Karoline: Trieste is one of the few cities that I’ve been to in the world that still loves Americans because they have a good memory of them.
Denise: Yes, people often write to us asking to open a similar place in Milan or Florence.
Karoline: We really love what we do and I think it shows.
Denise: And we hope to continue making a difference in this beautiful city for many years to come.
For more information on volunteering and various courses and events at the American Association of FVG and American Corner, please visit their website at http://aia-fvg.blogspot.com
