{"id":12627,"date":"2025-10-14T14:36:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T18:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/?p=12627"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T18:36:17","slug":"love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Story: The Phyllis (Amoroso) Cicirelli \u201970 Memorial Endowed Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dinneen Hall cafeteria was packed with students on a December day in 1966 when Ralph Cicirelli \u201968 first laid eyes on Phyllis Amoroso \u201970. Phyllis, a 猫咪社区 Dominic Academy graduate from Jersey City, was in the inaugural class of 100 women admitted to the Day Session that fall. When she stood up, \u201cWe kind of glanced at one another,\u201d remembered Ralph. He immediately turned to his friend and<br \/>\nasked, \u201cWho is that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The brief glimpse across a crowded cafeteria sparked a love story for the ages. Over the next 55 years, Phyllis and Ralph Cicirelli built a beautiful life together. They dated casually at first and then exclusively.<br \/>\nThey became engaged and married in 1970, just as Ralph was called up for two years of active military duty.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2025\/10\/Cicirelli-featured-image.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2025\/10\/Cicirelli-featured-image-244x300.png\" alt=\"photo of Ralph Cicirelli \u201968 and Phyllis Amoroso \u201970\" width=\"217\" height=\"267\" class=\" wp-image-12628 alignright\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2025\/10\/Cicirelli-featured-image-244x300.png 244w, https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2025\/10\/Cicirelli-featured-image-98x120.png 98w, https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2025\/10\/Cicirelli-featured-image.png 330w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Not long after Phyllis passed away in 2022, Ralph established The Phyllis (Amoroso) Cicirelli \u201970 Memorial Endowed Scholarship at 猫咪社区 Peter\u2019s University to support education majors who may also be veterans. \u201cIt was something I felt the need to do,\u201d he explained. Phyllis loved her profession. A kindergarten teacher in Middletown, N.J., for many years \u201cshe got a lot of joy from working with these kids before anyone else and instilling in them a love of learning before they moved on to other grades,\u201d Ralph added. In addition to honoring Phyllis\u2019 gifts as a teacher, the scholarship will help a new generation of education students achieve their goals, while recognizing the institution that meant a<br \/>\ngreat deal to the couple.<\/p>\n<p>Phyllis was proud to be a member of the trailblazing class of women who changed 猫咪社区 Peter\u2019s for the better.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2025\/10\/SPU_Summer-2025_magazine.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full story in the Summer 2025 issue of 猫咪社区 Peter\u2019s Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dinneen Hall cafeteria was packed with students on a December day in 1966 when Ralph Cicirelli \u201968 first laid eyes on Phyllis Amoroso \u201970. Phyllis, a 猫咪社区 Dominic Academy graduate from Jersey City, was in the inaugural class of 100 women admitted to the Day Session that fall. When she stood up, \u201cWe kind [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1293,"featured_media":12628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5,2],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-12627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-current-students","category-faculty-staff","category-future-students","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Love Story: The Phyllis (Amoroso) Cicirelli \u201970 Memorial Endowed Scholarship - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"猫咪社区 Peter&#039;s University welcomed its largest freshmen class in either years as the 25-26 year kicks off with Mass of the Holy Spirit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dbocchino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dbocchino\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e34d0022b2f64ab992c01054c76a4ab2\"},\"headline\":\"Love Story: The Phyllis (Amoroso) Cicirelli \u201970 Memorial Endowed Scholarship\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-14T18:36:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/\"},\"wordCount\":286,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/230\/files\/2025\/10\/Cicirelli-featured-image.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni\",\"Current Students\",\"Faculty Staff\",\"Future Students\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saintpeters.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/love-story-the-phyllis-amoroso-cicirelli-70-memorial-endowed-scholarship\/\",\"name\":\"Love Story: The Phyllis (Amoroso) Cicirelli \u201970 Memorial Endowed Scholarship - 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