About us

Corso Italy is a free, volunteer-run project that helps Arab students study and live in Italy. We collect clear, step-by-step information in Arabic, English and French and link to the official sources.

We also run EngPro, a free initiative where volunteer teachers help students improve their English.

Why we started this website

In 2025 I went to Lesvos, in Greece, to complete an internship with refugees living in the Mavrovouni camp, as part of my master’s degree in Human Rights and Conflict Management in Italy.

There I met people from many countries who had risked their lives to cross the sea by boat. They lived through fear. Many had lost loved ones, family members and friends, and had survived against the odds.

Part of my work was as a cultural mediator, interpreting between them and the organisations. Doing this, I listened to their stories and their pain. I saw their tears and heard their voices tremble. It affected me deeply.

When many of them learned that I came from Syria and was studying in Italy, they told me they had not known that studying was a way to come. Some thought it was almost impossible.

Back in Italy to continue my studies, I volunteered as an interpreter with a sea search-and-rescue organisation, and with another organisation in Greece. That is where the idea began: to offer help in a simple, clear way, in three languages, so that people coming from different countries can understand it.

This website does more than explain how to come to Italy to study. It also offers free English learning through EngPro.

The website is still being developed, and we keep adding to it.

— Shahed Hammal, founder of Corso Italy
Master in Human Rights and Conflict Management, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa)