How ice cream and gelato made it to the classroom

In the sixth week of the semester we had two wonderful guests: Carmen and Terri from the Big Dipper, our local ice-cream shop located in Dunkirk. I had met them only a couple of times before having them with us and our meetings were already wonderful and full of laughs. With the students, the Big Dipper’s founders and owners – who are Italian-American! – were simply outstanding! They shared their life stories, while telling us how they acquired the building where the Big Dipper is and how they started the business. They also brought us some ice cream that we happily enjoyed together. The students had one of the best classes of the semester, probably because we brought a taste (no pun intended) of reality into the classroom. From a teacher’s perspective, the opportunity to bring guests from the local community and so tying the university to the community itself was a successful move because we were able to engage the students at a different level while exploring successful life experiences, and since these were delivered with a healthy dose of humor, that made it even more appreciated and enjoyable. We hope to have the opportunity to have other guests from our local Italian-American community to bring other perspectives and approaches to life and culture. Thank you, Carmen and Terri, for joining us on September 28^th, 2016! By Chiara De Santi