Himorta: “From nerd to former teacher, I understood the value of education”

Before a million followers followed her Antonella Arpa, in art Himorta, was a middle school teacher, after earning a master’s degree in Languages ​​and a second level master’s degree. A brief interlude left to devote himself full time to her profession content creator and television personality.

Nerd by vocationeven the protagonist of a manga, Antonella is often protagonist of several campaigns educational programs to make young people aware of current issues: with Skuola.net and Intesa San Paolo for Italian high school students, but also bullying, education and numerous others on the environment and culture. A valid reason – along with many others – to entrust Antonella with running the University Festival 2023this Saturday 13 May at the Talent Garden in Milan.

Himorta will host the morning panel, part of a full day of training and entertainment punctuated by speeches, workshops and meetings conducted by guests and personalities (over 50 guests announced) from the world of entrepreneurship, journalism, training, sustainability, technology, finance, sport, fashion, social media, entertainment and many others. A unique opportunity for students to do networking activities, but also to try out innovative technologies, including viewers, robots, simulators, consoles and much more.

What did you think when they asked you to lead the festival?
«I immediately accepted this proposal with enthusiasm. At school I was the classic nerd at the first bench always standing there to attend all the university lessons. University was my natural habitat and I wallowed in it. My goal was always to excel: I’ve always been a very ambitious and competitive student».

The classic nerd! You also taught for a period of time, what do you remember about that experience?
“I taught for a year. I graduated at the age of 24 and immediately afterwards, up to the age of 25, I enrolled in the rankings as an English teacher in a middle school. It was a good experience, also because finding myself on the other side of the chair I discovered a side of myself that I didn’t think I had. When I was a student I wanted to socialize with other very good and well-prepared students, on the contrary when I was a teacher I became much more attached to students in difficulty; partly because it was a challenge to involve them, but it was probably also more simply a question of affection: I felt a bit like a mother. However, wonderful memories of my teaching at school remain ».

Even then you were a public figure, how did you relate to your students?
«I had three sections for a total of six classes and already then I had about 200,000 followers. Let’s say that by doing a small statistical calculation I had at least one student in each class who had seen me somewhere, given that I was already working in television at that time. With word of mouth everything was amplified. I minimized it and my students remained in doubt for some time, also because my real surname is different from my stage name and when I went to school I certainly didn’t wear evening dresses. I don’t know if this has benefited me in my relationship with them. Colleagues told me that I had quite rowdy classes, but they were calm with me, they respected me. Perhaps because I was probably closer to them by age than other older colleagues, and perhaps because they felt my life was much closer to theirs».

Do you think it is possible to make positive disclosure on social networks, to transmit positive values?
“Here there is a heated debate. I think an influencer is not a popularizer. From mine I have always felt the weight, in quotation marks, of that million followers, and, even if I don’t want to educate anyone, I like to do small things to try, even in a small way, to convey positive messages, such as environmental issues and of animal protection. The power of sharing is truly our most important weapon and being also closely linked to the world of superheroes, sharing somehow makes us all little heroes».

What do you dislike about social networks and their excessive use by the new generations?
«I think there is a lack of education in the conscious use of social media. Computer education should be taught in school. Kids are very good at using social media, but very often they don’t know how to relate to the problems that their immoderate use involves. Cyberbullying is a scourge, even more than 10 years ago, when the internet began to be part of our lives. What is missing is precisely to learn to evaluate the weight that a comment can have under a photo rather than under a video. I repeat, computer science education is fundamental and should be taught at school, even for one hour a week».

Returning to the Festival, among the various guests, is there anyone you would recommend?
«There are four panels I’ll be conducting in the morning: the first is related to sport and I certainly can’t wait to meet Demetrio Albertini, a former footballer and now president of the FIGC’s technical sector. There will also be Carolina Chiappero Innovation Manager of the Juventus Football Club, Sky Sport journalists and prosecutors. The second panel will be dedicated to fashion and there will be many guests from the sector, including Ida Galati who is a fashion teller, Tiziano Guardini, an Italian designer who uses natural fabrics and eco-sustainable materials and Michela Gattermayer, fashion creative director of Donna Moderna. Lots of personalities with whom we will talk about how fashion is conveyed through the web. The third panel is the one dedicated to startups and then there will be that of sustainability where the president of Plastic Free and the founders of 3Bee, a wonderful initiative that deals with the protection of bees in our area, will intervene».

Other nice initiatives in the near future?
«Of course, I will participate in the Giffoni Good Games in July, an event always linked to university students, where there will be an e-sports tournament and the winner will receive cash scholarships to continue studying».