URI student appointed to RI Board of GovernorsGov. Lincoln Almond recently appointed Alison DiPetrillo as the student representative to the Board of Governors for Higher Education. Every two years, the selection of a student representative alternates among Rhode Island’s three public schools: URI, the Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College. This year it was the University’s turn to make the recommendation to the governor.
“We went through a process of recruiting candidates and evaluating the perspective and experience each brought to this important role,” said URI President Robert L. Carothers. “Allison impressed me with the breadth of her understanding of issues in higher education today and the experience she had as a student, a parent of students and a community leader. I’m very pleased that she is willing to serve and that the Governor has appointed her.”
DiPetrillo, a 44-year-old student at URI’s Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education and mother of three, smiles at being called a non-traditional student. “I believe there are issues that all students share in common...parking and education costs for example,” she said. “My 20-year-old son, Derek, is a student at the University’s Kingston campus. My niece is enrolled at RIC. My nephew and my son’s girlfriend plan to attend CCRI in the fall.
“Being a representative to the board is a great opportunity to build bridges with students at all three schools, to listen to their concerns, and to advocate for them,” she said.
DiPetrillo plans to meet with student leaders at all three schools. She will also set up a website and e-mail address so students will have quick access to her.
A graduate of the former culinary certificate program at Rhode Island School of Design, DiPetrillo previously operated the Golden Bakeries in Coventry with her husband, Gary.
Community involvement is as natural to DiPetrillo as baking a cake. She’s a past president, vice president, treasurer and corresponding secretary of the Blackrock PTA, a Cub Scout leader for Pack 17 Blackrock for eight years, a math tutor, and a parent library assistant for six years. She also served on a town-wide “Technology R&D for the Future of Coventry Schools” committee.
“I jumped right into college life,” said the full-time student who majors in communications studies and minors in anthropology. She became active in the college’s Student Government Board, and became its president last spring. A computer tutor in the college’s Academic Skills Center, she recently began working with students with disabilities and advocating for their needs. She has found the advocacy work so rewarding that she’s thinking of a career in that field.
By Jan Wenzel
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