“HackSchool 2025: Young ideas for a changing Calabria”: this is the title of the new educational and cultural project, dedicated to young people from secondary schools throughout Calabria, as a collateral initiative as part of the eighth edition of the Catanzaro Silver Carlino Award, the event which every year offers a showcase and recognition to the best Calabrian excellence.
The path has now been enriched with this contest which aims to stimulate active reflection in young people on our present, inviting them to devise innovative and sustainable solutions to improve their community, with a global outlook. The initiative takes inspiration from the hackathon model, collaborative events that promote the creation and rapid development of projects, but adapting it to a training and territorial context. Combining creativity and talent with the values of participation and active and responsible citizenship: in pursuing this objective, the students called upon to participate will have to get involved, work as a team, clearly describe a problem and the possible solution, transform their ideas into a concrete project.
The experience will culminate in a public day of discussion and awards, in which the finalists will have the opportunity to exhibit their works in front of experts, institutions and the media, within the evocative setting of the San Giovanni Monumental Complex in Catanzaro.
The winners, selected by a technical commission, will receive the HackSchool 2025 Award, created by the master sculptor Antonio Affidato, and a cash voucher to be used for the purchase of IT tools, educational or technological materials.
“The Silver Carlino Award wants to grow and branch out more and more throughout the territory, speaking to the citizens of the future to imagine with them a more inclusive, modern, sustainable Calabria and aware of its potential – comments the creator of the event Yves Catanzaro – With these premises we wanted to launch the first edition of a competition which aims, precisely, to encourage and enhance creativity and transversal skills, leveraging the ability to work together. The hope is that a positive response can come from all the Calabrian schools, in terms of memberships, so that this first step can be the beginning of a path destined to grow over time”.