The style that characterizes life in Mazza College Residences has always encouraged the active participation and empowerment of students. An emblematic sign of the attention given to the participation and involvement of students in the College’s life can be found in Article V of the Institutional Code, which states that two members of the Board of Directors are to be chosen as representatives, elected via private ballot by at least two thirds of student residents in the College.
Further confirmation of the central role of students not only as recipients, but also as protagonists of the College’s vitality, is showcased by the fact that a group of students is selected to be part of the admissions committee along with the College staff, charged with the goal of reviewing new candidates’ applications and consulting current students’ academic careers during the period of annual review. The committee commissioned to perform this delicate task of evaluating applications, and selecting and confirming candidates’ admission is formed based on the ratio of students to Management.
In the ordinary internal activities of the individual Residences, students have an active voice in the various group initiatives as selected by the Student Assembly and in short-term club/group engagements.
Mazza College is characterized by the existence of personalized development projects: each student of the College is required to submit a personal development project at the beginning of the academic year. In dialogue with the Management, each student proposes goals to be achieved, both at the university and at the personal growth level, in order to directly experience, over the course of their college years, an exercise in responsibility in study management, life relationships, and the development of their own cultural awareness.
The College’s curriculum complements and completes university teaching at several levels: with a proposal of basic development, it then gives quality and added value to a university degree through the acquisition of IT and language skills, and with an elective educational proposal characterized by interdisciplinary and cultural experiences.
Each year, the College offers its students 3,500 hours of integrated development courses for university students, characterized by a balanced combination of academic initiatives (50%) and workshops centered on interpersonal relationships, group life, and teamwork (50 %).
Over the years, Mazza College has consolidated its relationship with local universities by launching, through special agreements, post-degree courses aimed at lifelong learning, and courses accredited and recognized as elective activities for students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate courses.
Over the last few years, the College has added a series of initiatives to its degree programs in order to facilitate students’ entry into workplaces after graduation.
In particular, the portal dedicated to former students encourages the research of opportunities, assists students in finding serious job offers, and also offers individual meetings in student residences to stimulate discussion regarding their professional development.
Since 1954 Mazza College has been recognized and supported by the Ministry of Education, University, and Research as a private entity with functions of public interest, and it belongs to the national network of Legally Recognized Merit-Based University Colleges ( www.collegiuniversitari.it ). These institutions offer hospitality services for university students by expanding and characterizing the educational offering of universities through cultural and educational preparation projects. A common value of all Legally Recognized Colleges is the personalization of development projects, based on the student’s willful adhesion to a challenging program of intellectual, academic, and personal growth.
In 1839, Nicola Mazza (1790-1865), a Veronese priest, proposed an initiative in Padua to help gifted young people with moral and intellectual qualities, but with no economic means to access university studies.
Later, political affairs linked to the unity of Italy interrupted this practice, which was then resumed in Padua by Bishop Giuseppe Tosi (1918-1975), and this is how the Don Nicola Mazza University College was born.
In its early years, the College had the urgency to construct accessible environments, to build a community, and to become an institution characterized by its desire to fulfill the varied and serious demands of the cultural and social context of that time.
The fundamental elements were clear: economically disadvantaged students, a strong and precise religious fervor, a critical scholastic evaluation, and an intense community life enriched through developmental and recreational activities.
Under the D.P.R. 1308 of October 26, 1954, “Don Nicola Mazza ” University College was established as part of the Moral Institution of Culture and Assistance in accordance with Article 191 of the T. U. of Higher Education Laws.
It is part of the legally recognized colleges under the supervision of the Ministry of Universities for Scientific and Technological Research.
Today the College has taken on the role of a cultural center through the establishment of various courses, seminars, and assemblies, and through the appreciation of its students for the vastness and variety of the activities it offers.
The logo showcases Mazza College’s origins in the Veronese church of San Carlo, from which comes the Borromeo family’s coat of arms, which combines two elements: native nobility (the three linked circles represent the history and successive union of three noble Milanese families: Visconti, Sforza, and Borromeo) and humility, a hopeful synthesis expressed by the two words on the side: “Utraque Unum” as a wish of good faith.
The logo adopted by Mazza College is intended to synthesize excellent intelligence, application of skills, and rewarding results, while humbly recognizing that these gifts have provenance in God, the maker of all things good, and those who benefit from these gifts have the responsibility of valuing them and glorifying God through the spirit of serving others (Don Nicola Mazza wanted his pupils to be useful to society and to the Church).
