Dr. Petillo's Blog

President Petillo's Blog - Friday, July 26th

The cool weather the last couple of days reminds me of fall. I always look forward to having the students back on campus and that feeling of new beginnings.

That said, summer offers the opportunity to interact with students of all ages as they descend on our campus for sports and science camps, pre-college courses and more. This week, I was fortunate to have a chance to read to the 48 students participating in the Horizons program at SHU this summer.  Watching them sing and dance after the reading session was a reminder to appreciate everything the world has to offer.


We had two successful Open Houses this week, and my thanks go out to everyone who was responsible for making them happen.  More than 80 interested students came to hear about programs offered by the College of Health Professions and the Isabelle Farrington College of Education on Tuesday night. There were strong showings for all of the individual programs. On Wednesday, students turned out to hear about the programs offered by the John F. Welch College of Business and the College of Arts & Sciences.


Have you had a chance to do any summer reading? I just finished And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. It speaks to the impact that today’s decisions can have on future generations. Earlier, I read Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham and Archangel by Robert Harris. In the meantime, the incoming freshman class is reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It will be interesting to hear from Henrietta’s descendants when they are here in September.

Enjoy the weekend!

Dr. Petillo’s Blog – July 19, 2013

Despite the construction everywhere and the heat wave we have been experiencing this week, there has been a lot of activity here on campus. We have sports camps and several other summer camps running for area youngsters. We also are running our pre-college program for the second consecutive summer. This program allows rising high school juniors and seniors to take classes for college credit. This summer, we have approximately 40 students taking classes in psychology, pre-calculus, health & wellness, effective speaking and academic writing for which they will receive four credits.

 

Students on campus for a pre-college class

 

We also have 48 Horizons students on campus this summer who will be entering first, second and third grades in the fall. This week, the third-grade students began a three-week cooking course with the chefs of Chartwells. Wednesday’s lesson involved the baking of muffins, which proved to be a delicious breakfast Thursday morning. Many thanks to Chartwells for suggesting and organizing the classes. Clearly I’m going to have some competition in the kitchen!

 

Horizons students cook with Chartwells

 

We said goodbye to a contingent of visitors from Costa Rica this week. They were from the Costa Rican Institute of Technology (TEC) to observe – and in one case participate in – our five-week summer intensive ESL course. While here, they also met with Matthew Kaye from the Office of Volunteer Programs and Service Learning to discuss programming for the annual international immersion/mission trip to Costa Rica and the accompanying international education course. Going forward, TEC will send students here for a summer ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course in engineering. This is just one of the programs offered by Sacred Heart’s accredited English Language Institute. These relationships not only give our campus international exposure, but are critical to our mission of bringing diversity to campus.

 

Visitors from Costa Rica

 

That mission was also well served Monday when we hosted 29 guidance counselors who were touring area colleges as part of a program organized by the Council of International Schools. Sacred Heart was selected by the CIS to participate, along with such schools as Yale, NYU, Fairfield University, Columbia, Wesleyan and Quinnipiac. Participants came from places ranging from Argentina, Sweden and Zambia to China, Thailand and Turkey. While here, they toured the campus; met with Big Red, administrators, faculty and currently enrolled students; enjoyed a nice dinner and heard Bill Haug sing in Red’s before spending the night in the residence halls.

 

International counselors with Big Red outside the Library

The feedback from the group has been extremely positive. They thought the campus was beautiful and our programs were exciting. There were a couple of folks in the group who had been here for a similar program in the ’90s, and they were stunned by the growth since then. They also appreciated our hospitality and the air-conditioned residence halls! My thanks to everyone who took time to meet with this group and make them feel welcome.

 

Members of our English as a Second Language (ESL) program have been attending a number of cultural events as well as sitting in on traditional classes. Recently, they attended a poetry reading by our own Professor Jonas Zdanys, who has published a new book of poetry.

Sacred Heart was positively recognized in two independent surveys this week. AffordableCollegesOnline.org named Sacred Heart University as the fifth most affordable college in Connecticut. The organization identified the schools with the greatest lifetime return on investment. Graduates from these schools enjoy the largest earnings gap between non-degree holders, over a 30-year span. Also, The College Database released its list of the Top Colleges in Connecticut with the Best Student-Teacher Ratios. Each college or university on the list has a total enrollment exceeding 5,000, yet averages fewer than 20 students per faculty member. Sacred Heart again was ranked fifth in Connecticut.

Enjoy the weekend!

President Petillo's Blog - Friday, July 12th

I’m on vacation with my family, enjoying the beauty of Positano, Italy. It’s been nice to get away and relax. I hope you all take time for a break at some point during the summer.


Still, technology has allowed me to keep up with the good news from campus.

Congratulations are in order for former Sacred Heart men’s basketball player Shane Gibson who will be playing for the Sacramento Kings in the 2013 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas for the next couple of weeks. Shane worked out for the Kings during their pre-draft workouts and was added to their 15-man summer league roster.

Congratulations also to Damon Maulucci, co-founder of our master’s program in film and television, for the recognition his film, Detonator, has been receiving on the festival circuit. The film was recently highlighted in the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the Brooklyn Film Festival. Damon was also a producer for the documentary Paul Williams Still Alive, which is currently running on Showtime.

More good news – we recently learned that Sacred Heart will be the recipient of a $30,000 grant from the Paul L. Jones Trust, in support of scholarships for the nursing/DNP program. We also will receive $150,000 over the next three years from the GE Foundation for the GE Scholars Program. This generous gift will allow six minority scholars to receive an annual award of $3,500, and to participate in a focused academic and cultural enrichment program.

Work is progressing rapidly on both our renovations and on the construction of our new academic building. As you can see in the photos below, the Edgerton renovations are on track for a fall completion and work had begun at the Pitt Center. There has also been progress on the site of the new building as workers prepare the ground for the beginnings of construction.
 
The SHU community said farewell to Maura Cook this week as she leaves SHU to join the staff of the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut in Hartford. During her time with Volunteer Programs, she impacted the lives of countless students as well as those who were the recipients of the volunteer programs she organized. She recently graduated from SHU with a master’s degree in communication. We congratulate her and wish her well.


Enjoy the weekend!

I’m on vacation with my family, enjoying the beauty of Positano, Italy. It’s been nice to get away and relax. I hope you all take time for a break at some point during the summer.

 

Still, technology has allowed me to keep up with the good news from campus.

 

Congratulations are in order for former Sacred Heart men’s basketball player Shane Gibson who will be playing for the Sacramento Kings in the 2013 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas for the next couple of weeks. Shane worked out for the Kings during their pre-draft workouts and was added to their 15-man summer league roster.

 

Congratulations also to Damon Maulucci, co-founder of our master’s program in film and television, for the recognition his film, Detonator, has been receiving on the festival circuit. The film was recently highlighted in the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the Brooklyn Film Festival. Damon was also a producer for the documentary Paul Williams Still Alive, which is currently running on Showtime.

 

More good news – we recently learned that Sacred Heart will be the recipient of a $30,000 grant from the Paul L. Jones Trust, in support of scholarships for the nursing/DNP program. We also will receive $150,000 over the next three years from the GE Foundation for the GE Scholars Program. This generous gift will allow six minority scholars to receive an annual award of $3,500.

 

Work is progressing rapidly on both our renovations and on the construction of our new academic building. As you can see in the photos below, the Edgerton renovations are on track for a fall completion and work had begun at the Pitt Center. There has also been progress on the site of the new building as workers prepare the ground for the beginnings of construction.

 

The SHU community said farewell to Maura Cook this week as she leaves SHU to join the staff of the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut in Hartford. During her time with Volunteer Programs, she impacted the lives of countless students as well as those who were the recipients of the volunteer programs she organized. She recently graduated from SHU with a master’s degree in communication. We congratulate her and wish her well.

 

Enjoy the weekend!