Over fifty family, friends and guests attended the ninth annual Picozzi Family Foundation Scholarship Luncheon held in June. In attendance were new and old scholarship recipients, family and school administrators. The luncheon started at noon with hors d’oeuvres served to allow everyone to reconnect and discuss their past year activities.
Approximately an hour later, the luncheon started. An invocation was provided by Father Bob Sandoz of Christ the King Prep, who welcomed everyone to the luncheon and thanked Gabriel “Jim” Picozzi and his family for creating the Foundation to “help and encourage young people to achieve their educational goals.” Nicholas Cannone, the Foundation’s Treasurer, then briefly spoke adding that part of the legacy of the Foundation is to “give back to the community” in recognition of the many benefits the Picozzi family has received.
The Picozzi Family Foundation was founded by Jim and his late brother Victor in an effort to give back to the community and honor their family name and legacy. Jim’s parents both came to America from Italy with little more than a shirt on their backs and the purpose of the scholarships, as Jim explained, is to give a hand up to others. The Foundation provides scholarships to grammar school, high schoo,l and college bound students and consists of four officers: Jim as President, Robert Picozzi as Vice President, Nicholas Cannone as Treasurer, and Hugh Blair as Secretary. The scholarships are awarded to students on the basis of academic ability. In addition, the Foundation is considering adding an additional scholarship to a communications major at Seton Hall University in honor of Robert Picozzi, who was recently honored by the school for his national broadcasting excellence.
Present at this year’s luncheon were representatives from Summit High School, Madison High School, Our Lady of Guadalupe Academy, St. Teresa of Avila Parish, the Benedictine Academy, The Scholarship Fund for Inner City Children, Christ the King Prep and the Seton Hall University.
This year’s college scholarship recipients were Rojas A. Lopez from Summit High School who plans to study engineering at St. Peter’s University, Julie Gargulio from Madison High School who plans to attend Rowan College as a business major and Samantha Hanley from St. Teresa’s parish who will be attending the University of Indiana, also as a business major. The non-college recipients are Isaiah Martinez who will be attending Christ the King Prep in Newark, Karen T. Cuadrado who plans to attend Our Lady of Guadalupe Academy in Elizabeth, Ameliyah Grant who plans to attend Benedictine Academy in Elizabeth and Sadia DeCastro who plans to attend Mother Seton High School in Clark.
At the end of the luncheon, Jim wished the recipients the best for the coming year and to forge ahead and obtain their goals with confidence in their future.
(above l-r) College scholarship recipients: Chris Zanelli, Samantha Hanley, Julie Gargulio, Robert Picozzi, Gabriel James Picozzi, Rojas Lopez, Ranisha Frejuste,
