My school is my family: Pupils, beginning in early years, as per the Anglo-Saxon method, are involved in teamwork, from three to eighteen years of age, stimulating their sense of responsibility. It is a place to practice civic education, exciting and open to solidarity. A crossroad of events and anecdotes (as, for example, when, in the early ’80s, Mick Jagger, the leader of the Rolling Stones music band, arrived, unexpected at the main office) entangle the history of the Italian school system with IST’s, the city of Turin and, essentially, Italian history.

The International School of Turin (IST) was founded in 1963 as the “American School” with just around thirty students. In the midst of the economic boom, Turin had recently hosted “Italia 61” in celebration of the centenary of the unification of the country. There was enthusiasm, desire to grow, and the Piedmont capital – thanks also to major factories such as Fiat – was beginning to welcome an increasing number of entrepreneurs and managers from all around the world.

The history of IST – which now welcomes more than 400 students on its Chieri premises, and hundreds of “alumni” fully integrated into the professional world on an international level – is an open window into the evolution of Turin, the school, and its leading community members. IST is one of the experiences which confirms the city of the Mole as a cutting-edge laboratory when compared to other areas in Italy.

In 1969 the American embassy contacted a group of entrepreneurs who were thinking of creating an association that could work as a “bridge” with US institutions. From that moment, a new, almost pioneer adventure began, nourished by the commitment of parents and teachers coming from the USA and the UK. IST, right from the beginning, was set up as a non-profit association, managed by its students’ parents, who offered the school their expertise, competencies, and economical capacities.

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