Dr. Petillo's Blog

President Petillo’s Blog: April 27, 2018

Typical of this time of year, we had a lot going on this week. It shows just how eclectic, involved and diverse our SHU community truly is

Over the weekend, the College of Education held its sixth annual literacy conference, “Igniting the Power of Literacy for All Learners.” We welcomed all educators to this informative event. The SHU Dance Company and the SHU Dance Ensemble both performed amazing shows in the Edgerton, and members of Heartbeat Percussion showed us their drum skills at its Pulse performance. Our School of Communication & Media Arts hosted its third annual “Getting in the Game: A Symposium on Women in Sports Media” event, moderated by ESPN’s Jen Lada and featuring guest speaker Patricia S. Betron, also of ESPN. Students, faculty and staff showed up to support cancer research at our annual Relay for Life event at the Pitt Center on Saturday. As always, this event was both emotional and fun as money was raised for a very worthy cause. A group of students and faculty from the engineering program had a booth at the Maker Faire at the Westport Library on Saturday. It was visited by more than 500 people. Students demonstrated how 3D printers and drones worked throughout the day. On Earth Day, more than 100 people joined Professor Jennifer Mattei and other members of the biology program to plant beach grass at Stratford Point. Another 35 people were there on Monday to continue with efforts to restore the shoreline.

And that was just the weekend! Monday kicked off Pioneer Pride Week. The Office of Alumni Engagement held a giving challenge with a goal of 1,000 gifts in 36 hours. Remember that every dollar donated goes back to the university. Thank you to those who contributed.  

It was a great week for events and lectures. On Monday, at the “Conversation with Gary Rose” event, Gary talked about his tenure at SHU and what has kept him around for over 35 years. We also introduced the Professor Gary Rose Family Scholarship.

Students, staff and faculty gathered on the 63’s Patio to have their cheeks swabbed at the Love Your Melon event, Melonfest, on Tuesday. The hope is to find a marrow match for someone in need. Later on Tuesday, the Institute for Public Policy held “Connecticut at a Crossroads: A Discussion About the Future of Public Education” in the Martire Forum. Leaders from our College of Education spoke about our recent poll results that delved deeply into public schools and education.

On Wednesday, we saw the brilliant research of our business professors at their spring research day. It was great seeing the professors share their knowledge and work with peers and students. Also that evening, we celebrated students and staff as many deserving people were honored at the Campus Life Leadership Awards. A Student Public Forum Debate also took place in the Martire Theater. Four students representing different political parties and groups shared their thoughts on the second amendment and immigration.

Over in the Art & Design Gallery, seniors in the art and design program shared their best work yesterday. The School of Computing sponsored the lecture “Mobile Devices: The Gateway to Approaching Investigations in the Cloud” in the library. Student-athletes were celebrated at the second annual Pioneer Ball on Thursday where the first-ever SHUey Awards honored athletes in a variety of categories. The event concluded with the presentation of the Pioneer Cup, which recognized service, scholastics and spirit. Students from the School of Computing showed off the recent food delivery app they developed for the restaurant Biagio Osteria at an event last night.

Today our business students will put their knowledge and skills to the test at our annual Business Plan Competition. Students will pitch their business concepts to a panel of judges. I’m sure you will wow them with your innovative ideas. And tonight, we host Mr. SHU, one of the highlights of the school year. We will see many of our male students showcase their talents at the pageant-like event tonight. I am sure the audience is in for a good time.

Thanks to everyone who gave a warm welcome to the many admitted students and their families who visited campus today for the final Admitted Students Day of the year. Please give another friendly welcome to high school sophomores and juniors who will be visiting SHU on Sunday for our Spring Preview Day.

I encourage all of you to attend tomorrow’s Sixth Annual Walk A Mile in Her Shoes event in downtown Fairfield. This is an important event that raises money for the Center for Family Justice and takes a stand against violence against women and girls. Please wear your SHU gear. Please also consider donating to the cause here.

Recently, the city of Bridgeport and Mayor Joe Ganim honored volunteer groups and their efforts as part of Volunteer Week. Student Mario Cimino was honored at the event for starting the SHU Clean Up Crew. Great work, Mario.

I want to encourage faculty and staff to come out for the Late Night Breakfast on Tuesday as students fuel up to study for final exams. It is always a lot of fun, and your students appreciate seeing you there.

Looking for something to do before final exams? Join the choirs on Saturday in the Edgerton as they perform fun and uplifting songs in their “Throwback Concert: Summer Road Trip.” Also on Saturday, be sure to get to the Upper Quad for Spring Fest. Enjoy the food trucks, games and entertainment. The band will present its annual spring concert on Sunday at the Edgerton featuring the magical musical world of Disney. Song favorites from Mary Poppins, Frozen and more will be performed.

Our softball team plays St. Francis at 1 and again at 3 on Saturday. Good luck to our student-athletes playing home and away. Go Pioneers!

Check out my social media pages for some of the great events that have been going on around campus such as the dinner for Student Ambassadors and Relay for Life.

Have a great weekend.

President Petillo’s Blog: April 20, 2018

It is weeks like this, packed with lively events, lectures and celebrations that make me dread the end of the semester. Nearly three weeks to go before commencement and students and faculty are busier than ever.

We kicked the week off with some events from our engineering program. They hosted another SHUmo Bot Challenge on Monday. Students put their skills to work as their robot creations faced each other in a sumo ring. On Tuesday, participants had the chance to fly drones and race them in competitions. All proceeds from this event benefited the Notre Dame High School STEM club. The students will be out in force again on Saturday with their drones at the Westport Makers Faire. Be sure to stop by their booth right next to the registration table.


Students, faculty and staff listened to many interesting lectures and talks these past few days. The Department of Catholic Studies hosted “Rejoice and Be Glad: A Conversation on Pope Francis’ New Exhortation” on Tuesday—a discussion by faculty experts. They shared their insights on the text and took questions from the audience. The Center for Healthcare Education Inaugural Year Lecture Series welcomed panelists for its “Dialogue on Compassion: The Lived Experience.” Speakers talked about compassion and their personal experiences before having a dynamic discussion and question-and-answer session with the audience. The Contemporary Catholic Conversation Series held “A Jewish, Christian, Muslim Conversation: Sacred Texts that Unite and Divide” on Wednesday. Students joined Imam Gazmend Aga on Wednesday at the fireplace in Linda’s for open discussions on the Quran and spirituality. Parent Council member Bruce Iannelli also came to campus on Wednesday to speak with students and faculty about how he built his business, European Auto Wholesalers. Dean John Chalykoff asked questions about his entrepreneurship skills. Professionals from the investment banking industry presented “Demystifying Investment Banking” on Thursday. They talked about how to build a career in the hedge fund industry. Larry Carroll, executive director of pastoral services and planning, was the featured speaker at Campus Ministry’s Agape Latte event Thursday night. What an exciting week of learning and engagement.

 

Student Trent Thompson was selected for participation in the 22nd annual Posters on the Hill conference, organized by the not-for-profit Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). Thompson is one of 60 students whose project was accepted out of more than 400 submissions from all over the country. He presented on Capitol Hill this week. Great job, Trent.

The Art & Design Department presented its senior projects on Monday at the Art & Design Gallery. Please stop by the gallery to see the wonderful works by students Maria Gabriela Mossa and Meaghan Piasio.

The Office of Volunteer Programs & Service Learning held a STEM Career Day last weekend that included hands-on activities in simulation labs in the Center for Healthcare Education. Faculty and student volunteers worked with children from Girl Scouts of CT, Upward Bound, the Academic Mentoring Program and the Community and Justice LLC programs. Looked like a day full of learning.

Math professor Bernadette Boyle endured the wind, rain and cold on Monday as she ran through the streets of Boston for her first-ever marathon. She finished the race in four hours, 10 minutes and five seconds. Congrats on the achievement, Bernadette.

Undergraduate students shared their end-of-the-year research projects at the annual Academic Festival today in the University Commons Auditorium. Thanks to those who visited the festival and spoke with students about their impressive work, and congratulations to all of this year’s award winners!  

Looking for something to do this weekend? Check out members of Heartbeat Percussion as they perform Pulse at the Edgerton Center on Saturday. The SHU Dance Company performs Mo(ve)ments on Friday and Saturday. The event highlights original works by professional choreographers and will feature the professional dance-company-in-residence. On Sunday, join SHU’s Dance Ensemble and special dance program guests for the Spring Finale 2018. The performance will feature student choreography. Also, please stop by and support the students and other community members participating in our annual Relay for Life event. It takes place Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. in the Pitt Center with a variety of great activities, beginning with the Survivors Lap at noon.


It was a great week for club sports. Our club football team celebrated their national championship win at a dinner Friday night in the West Campus Guest House where they received their certificates and rings. Our women’s figure skating club came in 12th at the national competition in Denver over the weekend. Our men’s club rugby team competed in the in the finals at the Beast of the East Tournament, but fell to Plymouth State. Congratulations to all of you for putting Pioneer Nation on the map!

In a similar vein, congratulations are in order for the wrestling team for being third among all 2018 NWCA Division I All-Academic teams. Only Harvard and Kent State had teams with a higher academic average. That is really impressive!

Our women’s rugby team plays LIU Post on Saturday at 9 a.m. and Mount St. Mary’s right after. Our softball team faces Fairleigh Dickinson at noon and again at 2 on Sunday. Our women’s lacrosse team battles Wagner at 1 on Sunday. Good luck to our student-athletes playing home and away.

Be sure to follow me on social media for updates on campus events.

Have a wonderful weekend.

President Petillo's Blog: April 13, 2018

We have one month left of the semester and we are not slowing down. My video blog highlights the many activities and events that occurred this week including the SHU L.O.V.E concert, a interfaith Passover Seder, the theatre arts production of In the Heights, the club figure skating sendoff before the nationals and much more. Enjoy!

President Petillo’s Blog: April 6, 2018

Students returned to campus this week after a brief break that I hope was restful.

While students were away, faculty gathered Monday for a day of professional development at a Faculty Institute. The “Teaching Excellence and Innovation” day included a panel on effective teaching practices led by members of the first cohort from our Association of College and University Educators partnership. Workshops covered writing across the curriculum, active learning strategies, blended learning, funding opportunities and much more. I hope everyone found the day enlightening.


The Department of Art & Design hosted its 26th annual Art & Design Expo in the Edgerton on Tuesday. Guest illustrator Dan Dos Santos spoke about his fantasy illustrations and his experiences pursing art. His work has appeared on several books including New York Times’ bestsellers.


This week was Greek Week. These past several days of spirit and community-building allowed the groups to come together, embrace their talents, provide service to the community and have an overall good time. 

As always, we had many interesting lectures this week. Holocaust survivor Judy Altmann was on campus on Wednesday to speak about her journey. Judy was arrested in her native country of Czechoslovakia and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp during the height of World War II. She was sent to labor camps and later survived the “death march.” Thank you, Judy, for sharing your heroic story with us. On Thursday, Professor June-Anne Greely spoke about “Images of Radical Hope: Contemporary Women Artists of the Middle East.” Her lecture focused on Muslim women throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.

We had a 1916 ambulance on campus Thursday for the lecture “The Ambulance 255 Project.” Guest speakers George King III and Jeffrey Klinger read the dramatic journals and letters written by young Americans who drove the ambulance onto World War I battlefields before the U.S. entered the war.  

Yesterday, a group of students from Dunbar School in Bridgeport visited campus for what has become an annual event. As a way to celebrate National Student-Athlete Day, the school children were introduced to college life through the eyes of our student-athletes. Athletes conducted a question-and-answer session with the youngsters who also received a tour of campus and had lunch in the Student-Athlete Success Center. They ended their visit with a field day.

Congrats to exercise science professor Anna Greer who recently started serving on the Bridgeport Health Department’s Advisory Committee. We always encourage faculty, staff and students to get involved with the community.

For the second year, members of our physician assistant (PA) program are participating in the Hope in Motion Run and Walk Event in downtown Stamford. The fundraiser supports the Bennett Cancer Center. Our PA program has a 20-member team who have tasked themselves with raising $4,000 by June. Money raised goes directly to patients, so they can receive the quality-of-life services needed to treat them holistically. Please consider donating here.

Senior Timothy Kelly was one of two recipients for the Frank L. Greathouse Government Accounting Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to full-time students preparing for a career in state and local government finance. The finance and accounting major will participate in an audit intern program with PricewaterhouseCoopers this summer. Great work, Timothy.

Michael P. Alfano, dean of the Isabelle Farrington College of Education and commissioner of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s Clinical Practice Commission, recently moderated the panel discussion “The Clinical Practice Imperative: A Pivot Toward Clinical Practice, Its Lexicon and the Renewal of Educator Preparation.” You can read more about it here.

Looking for something to do this weekend? Check out the SHU L.O.V.E. Pops Concert on Saturday in the University Commons Auditorium. The women of the Ladies Only Vocal Ensemble will present inspirational music highlighting emotions, stories and heartwarming experiences that share how kindness can build connections.

Our men’s volleyball team plays NJIT tonight at 7, and they battle Princeton tomorrow at 5.

Our women’s lacrosse faces LIU Brooklyn today at 3. Good luck to our student-athletes playing home and away.

Have a great weekend!