By Claire Latsko | Newport Area Editor
Every person on campus at Salve Regina has heard the name Andy Cirioli. Everyone. You all know him, right? He is the SGA president, that friendly guy who always says hi to you, and probably one of the only people on campus that knows almost every person’s name. But the real question is: do we actually know Andy? Do we know anything about him besides the fact that he’s our SGA president? Who is he really? What are his dreams, talents, and goals? What is the color of his heart? Well, I sat down with him to find out exactly that.
As the president of SGA it is obvious that Cirioli is very involved on campus and in the community, but something that not many people may know about him is his commitment to servant leadership, “That’s sort of like a theme in my life,” he said. He loves to be able to help people and serve the community in any way he can, and carries that passion into his role in SGA. Cirioli says that he tries to “create an environment that students can be leaders in.” He loves how welcoming the Salve community can be because “coming to college is sort of like starting kindergarten.” He finds himself happy because he did not have to change to be a part of this community. “I was able to be exactly who I wanted to be. I get to be who I am.”
If you are one to attend an SGA or CAB meeting, don’t be put off by “serious Andy” that is in, what he likes to call, “business mode.” At meetings like this Cirioli has an agenda and does not want to waste any time goofing around. He still tries to keep a high level of energy at these meetings, though.
Even though Cirioli is a happy, energetic man, he takes quite a liking to sad music. He does not only listen to songs for the instruments, “I listen for the lyrics as well,” he said. He finds the messages of songs to be the most important factor for him when deciding if he likes a song or not.
This fondness of sad music has lead Cirioli to a unique ambition. “My goal is to learn how to play ‘My Heart Will Go On’ in as many instruments as possible.” Céline would be honored. He says that he can play the iconic song from the Titanic movie on the piano, guitar, recorder (“that I learned in third grade,” he giggled), saxophone, organ, and is trying to learn it on trumpet. Would anyone else vote yes to seeing this in this year’s Salve’s Got Talent?
One of Cirioli’s wonderful quirks is that he enjoys randomly serenading people. “I’m not even a good singer,” he says, “I just sing to people.” He casually starts crooning to someone whenever a moment to do so presents itself. “I think it happens a lot.” He mostly serenades his friends, whose relationships he considers close but funny because of all the inside jokes that they share.
Some of Cirioli’s special talents include cooking, “I know a lot of fun cooking techniques, like flipping an egg on a pan, but sometimes I miss, and that’s okay,” he said.
He also enjoys woodworking with his father. “We have a workshop at home,” he explained. “Everything pretty much in our house my dad built, and throughout my life I’ve always helped him out with it.”
His other, many, interests include kayaking, hiking, fixing cars, and flying planes. He says one of his goals is to get his pilot’s license. “If you’re not afraid of heights it’s the most incredible thing,” he said. Cirioli has come to appreciate the beauty of seeing the world from a perspective “that you can only get from Google Earth or if you’re flying a plane.” He finds the fact that we even have technology to fly extremely profound.
Cirioli’s favorite subject is history, and his love for the Titanic seems to be where his love for Céline Dion stems from. He admits to writing a letter to President Bush in 2003 when he was around 7 or 8, suggesting that April 14th and 15th, the days that the boat sank, should be a national holiday to honor the people whose lives were lost in the accident. “He never got back to me, and it’s clearly not a national holiday, so clearly my message has gone nowhere.” He finds the actual story of the famous boat intriguing, and is fascinated by the ways the movie has influenced our culture. He loves that everything in history is woven together.
This love for history has lead Cirioli to his love for politics. “I’d love to run for mayor of my town one day,” he said. He aspires to move up the political ladder, but says he will find it difficult when dealing with corruption amongst other politicians as well as ensuring that he himself does not become corrupt. “Corruption just comes,” he said. He wants to be in politics, though, for the sake of helping people, “I like to give back to people, I want to give people what I can.”
“Towards the end of my life I’d love to be a college professor,” Cirioli said. “The history that I will teach in classes is the history I was part of.” He says he finds that the best teachers are the ones who bring their own experiences into the classroom.
Cirioli wants to use his knowledge to teach others what he learned throughout his life. “Teaching is one of the most noble professions, I think,” he said.
Cirioli wants to make an impact on the world, an impact that is sustainable. At the end of his life he wants to be able to share everything that he has done. “My life doesn’t end the day I die,” he said, “my life hopefully will surpass that and will be able to be lived out through what I’ve taught others.”
By the way, Cirioli says that the color of his heart is violet. The warmth represents the passion he has for everything he does, while the blue tones embody his calm nature.
