Italian Cultural & Community Center Of Houston

Scholarship Program: In 2024, the Italian Cultural & Community Center awarded $37,000 in scholarships to deserving young men and women. Since 1982, the ICCC has awarded $1,000 each for new and renewing annual scholarships to high school seniors based on merit and financial need. In 2024, one new scholarship was awarded to high school seniors, and six scholarships were renewed. Since its inception, we have awarded six scholarships to eligible undergraduate, MBA, or Ph.D. students for study abroad programs in Italy, totaling $15,000. The program began in 2020 (overseas travel was unavailable in 2020/2021 due to Covid). See Schedule O for continuation.Since inception in 2023, we have awarded two one-time non-renewable $5,000 scholarships to college students currently enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate, or Ph.D. program, majoring or minoring in Italian Studies Concentrating in Italian History and/or Culture. Thanks to a donor, we were able to offer two additional scholarships of $10,000 each to college-bound high school students in 2024.Since 1986, the organization has granted over $483,000 in scholarships.

Cultural Events: Since 1988, the public has enjoyed continuous events highlighting Italy and Italians' vast global contributions. During 2024, programs were conducted to highlight Italy's cultural, historical, educational, and traditions. The programs included wine lectures and tasting series focused on regional wines and the history of the wine-growing regions in Italy, a contemporary Italian Film Series during which films were shown monthly for five months, educational lecture workshops, and cultural classes. Total attendance for all the Cultural Events exceeded 1,980 people. Other events focus on Italian tradition, such as La Befana for the children.

Italian Mass: For most Italian immigrants to America, Sunday recalls morning Mass in Italian, followed by a family gathering for lunch. Since 1989, the organization has sought to preserve this tradition with a Mass in Italian once a month followed by an equally well-attended pasta lunch. Mass is generally attended by about 30-50 people, many of whom may be visitors from Italy or those whose native language is Italian and members of the Italian-American Community. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not conduct the Italian Mass from March 2020 to December 2021, but the Mass resumed in 2022, with the gathering for lunch after Mass starting again in 2023.

Heritage Book: To record history and preserve the memory of Italian-American life in the greater Houston area from the late 1800s until now, the organization has underwritten the publication of two large, glossy-paged volumes of Houstonians of Italian-American Descent: Volumes I & II. The project was from 2001 to 2006. During that time, 100% of Vol. I printed books and 99% of the Vol. IIs were sold or donated to libraries and heritage organizations requests for Vol. II continue to be filled, albeit only a few copies are left.

Library: The Library houses books in Italian for our Language School students & the community at large for research & study. Additionally, the library collection includes books about Italian-American history and authors of Italian-American descent.

La Voce - Initially named "II Domani," the newspaper began publication in 1989 to inform the public and Italian-American community of events at the Italian Cultural & Community Center and report the member clubs' news. In 2020, the publication went electronic and was emailed quarterly to approximately 4,500 followers in 2023. It can be downloaded free from our website, as can prior issues.