  | Selected alumni profiles. | |||||||||||
Class Acts Profiles
Steve Bucci ’69, M.A. ’72 Financial Control Steve Bucci, president of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Southern New England, helps people gain control over their finances. He founded the non-profit agency in 1991 at the time of the Rhode Island banking crisis with one employee. Today Bucci’s organization of 165 people works to help more than 18,000 families in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut solve their financial problems. “It’s been a great experience to help people using the skills I acquired in private industry,” says Bucci, who, in 1996 discovered a way to expand his mission. He founded the Center for Personal Financial Education (www.gettingfiscallyfit.org), an educational resource and research center whose primary goal is to increase financial literacy. The center is a joint venture between the University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension, Bucci’s agency, and URI’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies. “The object is to help people stay out of financial trouble in the first place,” says Bucci. “The information we put out there is preventative, not merely curative.” The center produces and provides an array of integrated outreach programs and services designed for diverse audiences and delivered through schools, at community sites, in the workplace, and through mass media. Topics range from credit use to home buying to retirement planning. Bucci and faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies have worked closely to create “Getting Fiscally Fit,” a series of CD-modules for educators. One of the modules was used with URI freshmen in fall 2001. The center recently received a $90,000 grant from the CDNE Foundation, of which Bucci is a director. “I am proud we can reach a larger audience with a product that is technologically advanced and academically sound,” says Bucci of his collaboration with URI. “This shows alumni can work with URI to do something really important. I also support the University in more traditional ways, but this kind of partnership shows there are other ways, too.” —Nicki Toler
Melissa Hempstead Schottland ’72 This Old House For 19 years, Melissa Hempstead Schottland enjoyed a career as a special education teacher. She trained for this admirable profession at URI, where she earned a degree in elementary education. While teaching was rewarding, Schottland harbored an artistic spirit that was difficult to convey through the three R’s. “I enjoy sewing and silk screening and tried to incorporate hand projects like quilting into my lessons,” says Schottland. Although Schottland wove some creativity into her classes, a French provincial-style home that she and her husband purchased in retirement unlocked her flair for design. They refurbished the entire house, and that labor of love encouraged her to further explore interior decorating. When the Schottlands moved to Block Island in 1998, their friends Champlin and Lisa Starr purchased the Hygeia House, a 19th century inn victimized by vacancy and neglect. Determined to restore the inn to its former glory, islanders pitched in to help the Starrs, and Melissa Schottland volunteered her services for the interior decoration. “I had a really tight budget, but I’m a great bargain shopper, and I found discounted fabric and 21 wallpaper patterns that looked antique,” she recalls. After six months, the 10 guest rooms had matching dust ruffles, curtains, and valences, and each bathroom featured coordinated stenciling. Preservationists everywhere noticed when the Starrs welcomed 650 guests at the grand opening of the renovated Hygeia House. The Home and Garden Television network featured the makeover on its If Walls Could Talk program. Schottland’s reputation quickly spread, and soon thereafter she established her own company, Around the Block Decorating. Her clientele includes other island hotels and private homeowners. Schottland speaks enthusiastically of her new career and thoroughly enjoys her transition from the classroom to the showroom. “Each of my customers is like family. Every project is like a blank canvas that I get to color.” — Maria V. Caliri ’85, M.B.A. ’92
Donna Arnold ’76, M.B.A. ’78 The Spirit of Giving Relocating to California from Connecticut brings inherent challenges—cultural changes, different jobs, and new schools. Donna Arnold, who earned a B.A. in German, and her husband, Thomas Cerio ’76, faced all of those tests when Cerio was named executive vice president of Buena Vista Pictures. While the Cerio family easily adapted to Southern California’s climate, they found Berkley Hall School’s curriculum somewhat unsettling. At Berkley, junior high school students are required to participate in off-campus community service. “Community service is wonderful, but Berkley’s program was informal and based on hours served,” says Arnold. “My son spent a summer feeding the homeless, but he was just fulfilling a requirement. It wasn’t meaningful.” Arnold decided to revamp the community service program. She began by identifying five categories: hunger and the homeless, children, the elderly, the environment, and animals. With assistance from teachers and other parents, she contacted community organizations dedicated to these causes. Several nonprofits, including L.A.’s Best, an organization that designs after-school activities for elementary school students, and Friends for Pets, a group that rescues abused and abandoned dogs, responded warmly. Seventy-five students became involved in a range of services, from tree planting in the inner city to assembling CARE packages for needy families. At the end of the year, the students gathered to share their experiences. “The kids got a lot out of it,” says Arnold. “They interacted with others from different cultural and social backgrounds.” School officials have since revised the program for administrative reasons. Students now participate in large group projects like beach cleanups. What does Arnold think about the change? “The students are still contributing. It’s important for them to recognize that you don’t have to work 1,000 hours to serve your community. Even if you spend a day picking up trash at the beach, you can still make a difference.” — Maria V. Caliri ’86, M.B.A. ’92
Hisa Leger ’97 The Oriental Way By traditional Japanese standards, a cultured woman can be measured by how well she performs a tea ceremony, arranges a vase of flowers, or scripts a line of calligraphy. Hisa Kaizumi of Osaka, Japan, studied these arts as a teenager never thinking she would export her skills and use them to make floral arrangements for a funeral or an Easter dinner centerpiece. But in 1974 she immigrated to the U.S. and found herself doing just those things. After marrying Rich Leger and having three children, she settled in Narragansett and worked part-time in a supermarket’s pharmacy and floral shop. At 45, Leger joined the ranks of URI undergraduates, taking ballet, oceanography, public speaking and other courses that, at first, frightened her, but then slowly built up her confidence. “These were the things that helped you live in the world. They were little things, but they amounted to a lot,” she said. A Human Development and Family Studies major, Leger discovered a new interest blooming at her part-time job. The perfectly round, pastel floral centerpieces that she made for the store began to give way to her Japanese training in flower arranging. Customers loved her new creations. In April 2000, the Legers opened Hisa’s Flowers and Gifts in a strip mall in Narragansett. Now 80 percent of her arrangements are in the Japanese style, and the other merchandise in the store—bonsai trees, saki sets, chiming clocks, and other Asian imports—are all hand-selected by the Legers. Last year, the East Greenwich Business and Professional Women’s Club awarded Leger the 2001 Woman of Achievement award for her business and community work. “I had no idea what I’d be getting into,” she said of her fledgling business. “But I knew about Japanese things, and I know the oriental way. I thought that this store might be the right choice for the people here.” — Chris Poon
Daryl Finizio ’99 Picking Up The Pieces In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, former Student Senate president Daryl Finizio is helping to rebuild New York City’s Police and Fire Departments and is looking at new policies to combat terrorism in the future. “Being involved in this process is good for me because it allows us to fight back,” he said. Finizio, who grew up in Westerly, R.I., is a senior criminal justice policy analyst for the New York City Council. He assists the City Council’s Public Safety Committee and Fire and Criminal Justice Committee, which oversee the New York City Police and Fire Departments. Finizio works in the City Council’s Legal and Governmental Affairs Division, which is located about two blocks away from the World Trade Center, and he was in the office at the time the first jetliner hit the twin towers on the morning of September 11. After hearing the first explosion, Finizio went outside to see what had happened and was on the scene when the second airliner plunged into the Trade Center. Since then, the city has held hearings to determine how to help retool the Police and Fire Departments in equipment and training and is looking at what has been lost, what has been replaced, and what procedures are now in place in the case of future terrorism or other disasters. Using the testimony of academics, security people, and civil liberties experts, Finizio is writing a report outlining the pros and cons of various plans and giving recommendations to be released to the public and incoming city council members. Finizio said the spirit of patriotism and helping others has continued to permeate the Big Apple. “New York City’s very strong,” he said. “The people have been very nice and very resilient.” —Tim Ryan ’99 |
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