Dr. Petillo's Blog

President Petillo’s Blog: July 27, 2018

It was an eventful week at SHU as we hosted two gubernatorial debates at the Martire Forum. Both groups of candidates offered lively dialogue about the issues facing the state of Connecticut with a few fireworks thrown in to keep things interesting. Thanks to the students and community for attending, and a special thank you to our students and faculty in the School of Communication, Media & the Arts for running both debates so smoothly.   

This weekend, and this weekend only, our Theatre Arts Program will present Godspell. Be sure to get your tickets here to see this musical production.

The Summer Send-Off tour to welcome new SHU families went through Chappaqua, N.Y., last Thursday. Jamie and Rich Comstock, parents of Henry ’19, opened their home to excited incoming students and parents from Westchester County. We are thankful to all of our Parent Council members who host and attend these special meet-and-greet receptions around the region each summer.

The Alumni Summer Series events continued on Long Island for the 17th annual Alive@Five street festival in Patchogue, N.Y. In addition to alumni, the SHU tent was visited by students, parents and friends. It was great to have Sacred Heart proudly represented at this fun event.

The CT Challenge’s annual fundraising event is this weekend. Team SHU, a group of bike riders and volunteers from our SHU community, will participate in the annual bike ride that supports cancer research and programs. All proceeds raised by the team go to the Christopher Cook Scholarship Fund, started by Director of Athletics, Emeritus, Don Cook in honor of his late son who lost his battle with cancer in 2014. Please visit the team’s page to make a donation. Good luck to all those participating.

Have a great weekend.

President Petillo’s Blog: July 20, 2018

This week brought one of my favorite days of the summer—the Horizons reading and dance party! The local Bridgeport kids sat on the quad by Melady Hall for story time on Monday. We read Mousetronaut, Knuffle Bunny and Madeline’s Rescue before we all enjoyed an ice cream dance party. It was a great morning.  

The Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Articulation Camp is well underway at the Center for Healthcare Education. The six-week program focuses on providing speech sound therapy for school-age children. The program pairs graduate SLP student clinicians with a child for weekly one-on-one therapy sessions. It provides an opportunity for SHU students to get specific clinical assessment and intervention experience with speech sound disorders, while the clients and their families receive speech therapy services at a time when they are not offered in schools. At the completion of the camp, each family receives a progress report summarizing the therapy performance of the child, and each child receives a summer packet of speech practice activities to maintain what he or she has learned.

We are in the homestretch of our Summer Send-off receptions—events around the region to celebrate our newest Pioneers. Last Thursday, our Parent Council chairs Ralph and Margaret Mucerino, parents of Caitlin ’19, welcomed new SHU families from central New Jersey to their home in Tinton Falls. On Tuesday, Parent Council members Bruce and Margaret Iannelli, parents of Mia ’21, entertained families from northern New Jersey at their home in Ho-Ho-Kus. Many thanks to the host families for opening their homes so incoming students and parents have a chance to build a network of familiar faces before move-in. See a glimpse of the meet-ups here. The last two Summer Send-offs will take place in Chappaqua, N.Y. and Fairfield. 

Last Thursday, the Office for Alumni Engagement hosted its first of five Summer Series events in Stamford at the Alive@Five concert with a post-concert reception at Bobby V’s Restaurant. Summer Series events are hosted by SHU’s regional alumni chapters and are a great opportunity to network and meet other alumni who work, live or visit the area.

After receiving a College of Arts & Sciences interdisciplinary grant, professors June-Ann Greeley, Joseph Nagy and Nathan Lewis developed an interdisciplinary approach to teaching Dante and taught a course in our honors program this past year. The group, along with a student, was invited to present its teachings in October at the Third Biennial Teaching the Christian Intellectual Tradition Conference at Samford University in Alabama. Congrats to the team on this opportunity, and we look forward to hearing about their experiences this fall.

This weekend is your last chance to see the TAP performance of Barnum. Get your tickets here.

Next week, SHU is hosting gubernatorial debates in conjunction with WSHU and Hearst Media. Come to the Martire Center on Tuesday to see the Republican candidates spar over a number of topics and again on Thursday to see the Democrats have their say. Both debates start at 2 p.m.

Enjoy the weekend!

President Petillo’s Blog: July 13, 2018

I hope everyone has been enjoying the beautiful weather. Summer is officially in full swing.

The Theatre Arts Program’s presentation of Barnum opened last week. To kick things off, the program held a birthday party for the late, great P.T. Barnum, who would have turned 208 years old on July 5. TAP students celebrated with Kathleen Maher, executive director of the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, and Elinor Biggs, the great-great-great granddaughter of Barnum. Get your tickets for the show here.  

It’s always exciting to see students from the Horizons at SHU summer enrichment program back on campus for the summer. This is one of my favorite programs as it really makes a difference for the children by helping them overcome the achievement gap that can occur during summer vacation. I have also enjoyed getting to know them as they return year after year. This week the Horizons at SHU board of directors gathered for a photo and to welcome the program’s new executive director, Jaime Perri.


On Tuesday evening, a great group of incoming SHU families gathered together for the Long Island Summer Send-Off. Many thanks to Parent Council members Rich and Shauna Haas P’19, P’21 for hosting the reception at their home in Smithtown, N.Y.


This week, students from the TAP program gave the $10,000 donation raised by the cast of In the Heights to the Hispanic federation for the Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico Relief Fund. Congratulations to all the TAP students for an outstanding fundraiser.


On July 27 and 28, Team SHU will participate in the annual CT Challenge, a bike ride that supports cancer research and programs. All proceeds raised by Team SHU go to the Christopher Cook Scholarship Fund, started by Executive Director of Athletics, Emeritus, Don Cook in honor of his late son who lost his battle with cancer in 2014. I encourage you all to consider riding and/or donating to this great cause. To learn more, click here.

We are thrilled and grateful to receive a $25,000 grant from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, for the development of our engineering program. The grant will help the University invest in materials and parts for designing autonomous vehicles—such as microcontrollers, sensors and electronics—that will be used in the Intro to Engineering courses offered to freshmen.

SHU was recently ranked by College Choice for having the best health services degrees. Kudos to the staff and faculty in the Colleges of Health Professions and Nursing, who work hard to ensure our students are well prepared for their careers in health care.

Have a great weekend!