Fiorentino Scholarship Fund

Dr. Lisa Fiorentino had a rewarding and successful career as a professor of nursing and as a university administrator, but the Niagara Falls-born academic knows that the educational path that paved the way to her success is expensive, and not available to everyone.

That’s why she and her husband, Dr. K. James Evans, worked with the Niagara Community Foundation to establish a pair of scholarship funds for students at Brock University and Niagara College – to help ease the financial burden of post-secondary education for others.

Dr. Fiorentino and Dr. Evans named the scholarships after her parents and an aunt and uncle, as a tribute to their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit, and to the loving support that made possible her journey through post-secondary education – earning a college diploma followed by Bachelor, Master, and doctorate degrees.

The P. Louis and Philamena A. Giagnorio Fiorentino Scholarship Fund is named after Dr. Fiorentino’s parents and will be awarded at Niagara College, while the Peter and Gloria Giagnorio Savelli Scholarship
Fund is named after her beloved aunt and uncle and will be awarded at Brock. Fiorentino chose Niagara College because it is where she began her post-secondary career, and she chose Brock because she wanted to support another Niagara institution that serves so many local students. Earnings from the two funds will flow to the financial aid offices of the two schools, and will be awarded, at the schools’ discretion, to returning undergraduate students in good academic standing, who have a demonstrated financial need.

Neither of Dr. Fiorentino’s parents had the opportunity to attend college or university, but they knew the importance of education and made it possible for Dr. Fiorentino and her siblings to attend and to graduate debt-free. Dr. Fiorentino and Dr. Evans want to offer that kind of encouragement to other students too.

“Student debt can be crushing for students and their families,” she said. With the wise stewardship of the Niagara Community Foundation, “these scholarships will make a difference in the lives of students from the Niagara Region.”