Verrazzano Honors Continues to Enrich Student Experiences Thanks to Generous Donations

The Verrazzano Honors Program encourages students to say “yes” to opportunities, and now the program can, too, thanks to some generous donations over the past academic year.

Lorraine DiPaolo, wife of the late Professor Gordon DiPaolo, presented Verrazzano Honors with a $10,000 check, which will support internships for students in social media, professional development, alumni relations, and community engagement. Students supported by these internships extend the reach of the program to enable new initiatives to take off.

“Like everyone else on campus, we’ve had to be very creative and strategic about how to enrich our students’ experiences because of limited budget. Mrs. DiPaolo’s gift means we can take some of our ideas on how to improve our program and make them happen,” says Dr. Cheryl Craddock, Associate Director. And it’s not just internships, there’s funding for program activities as well.”

A separate fundraising effort raised over $7,000 from alumni, friends of Verrazzano Honors, and matching funds from the CSI Alumni Association. That money, in combination with Mrs. DiPaolo’s contribution, helps the program pay for orientation activities, extracurricular events, and recruitment materials.

“For so long, when we’ve planned out activities for the year, we’ve had to say ’no‘ to certain things that were out of our reach financially. It has been so liberating to say ’yes’,” says Cynthia Palumbo, Administrative Assistant for the Verrazzano Honors Program.

And if that weren’t enough, Verrazzano also received an anonymous donation of $3,000 to upgrade student computers and office furniture in the Verrazzano lounge.

“I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to have people believe in what we do,” says Dr. Craddock. “These students are amazing. It’s an honor to work with them.”

By: Cheryl Craddock