Steve and Tina Romaniello didn\u2019t attend UConn, but Steve, a Connecticut native, is a lifelong UConn basketball fan. Tina found his enthusiasm infectious and became a Huskies fan as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love seeing the passion my husband has for UConn,\u201d Tina says. \u201cHe brought me in. Seeing these athletes play is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Romaniellos, who currently reside in St. Petersburg, Florida, recently put their passion into action by establishing the Star Kids Kathy and Geno Auriemma Scholarship to support women\u2019s basketball players. The scholarship is fully endowed and will completely cover all costs of the present-day value of a full women\u2019s basketball scholarship, an amount that has increased over time.<\/p>\n
The Romaniellos founded the Star Kids Foundation 10 years ago to teach their four children about philanthropy and the importance of using your good fortune to help others. The children are actively involved in the foundation, with each child allotted an amount of money annually to donate to a charity of their choice. The charities must support the foundation\u2019s mission: to level the playing field for disadvantaged youth in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel pretty strongly that talent is distributed randomly throughout the world, but opportunity is not,\u201d says Steve, who works as a senior advisor at Roark Capital Group, a private equity firm. \u201cWe want to make sure that everybody has an equal opportunity to use their God-given gifts and their determination, and that the circumstances they could not control would not be the reason they are not healthy and successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Romaniellos say that investing in the UConn women\u2019s basketball team aligns with the foundation\u2019s mission as well as their second requirement, which is that they must be able to see demonstrable evidence of results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the UConn women\u2019s basketball program, obviously you see the results on the court, but that\u2019s not really the results we\u2019re talking about,\u201d Steve explains. \u201cWhat we see is women coming out of the program with a work ethic. They\u2019re determined. They\u2019re adaptable. The experiences that they have through this program clearly position them for a better chance at success after basketball, in life more generally. And those are the results we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geno Auriemma, head coach of the UConn women\u2019s basketball team, says that universities benefit immensely from support like that of the Romaniellos.<\/p>\n
\u201cA university survives based on support. That support comes from state funds, if you\u2019re a public institution, but that\u2019s never enough,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has to be augmented by private individuals who have a love and a passion for the school or, in this case, the women\u2019s basketball program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geno says that the impact of the Romaniellos\u2019 generosity extends beyond the scholarship recipient\u2014the entire team benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis allows us to take the money we were spending on scholarships and invest it in the program in other areas that we may not be able to do now,\u201d Geno says. \u201cIt frees up funds to support things that will help the players reach their goal, to train better, to work in an environment that\u2019s cutting edge in everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geno\u2019s wife, Kathy, says she is honored that the Romaniellos included her in naming the scholarship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team is an extension of our family,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re living in a time when college is in high demand. I\u2019m glad that we can be a part of something like this and give an opportunity to young people who might not be able to go to college without this support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geno hopes that the Romaniellos will inspire others to take similar action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more people who support scholarships, the more resources we have,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a snowball effect: once people start to give and it catches on, great things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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