The girl from Lenox Ave.

What does it mean to me to have served as president of the university in my hometown?

I grew up several blocks from this campus, on the 900 block of Lenox Avenue. I went to Kernan Elementary for kindergarten and St. Joseph-St. Patrick for grades 1-8. Those were the days when my brothers and sisters and I were each left a quarter a day for the summer months, which covered admission into Addison Miller pool, almost right here behind the Utica campus, and an ice cream on the way home at the shop on City Street. Those were also the days when you left the house in the morning, maybe you returned for a midday sandwich, definitely returned for dinner, and you went back out until the street lights came on.

I am the youngest of six children, and was pretty much a thorn in my older siblings’ side for years. Wherever they went, I had to go too. Whether they liked it or not – and most times, they didn’t like it – I was like the little boat anchor they couldn’t shake. But man, did I ever get an early education in life?

I have to thank my brother Steven for “toughening me up.” When he had no one to play catch with, or even a ball to throw for that matter, he would roll up newspapers, wrap them in electrical tape, grab a glove three times too big for me, and take me out to the backyard to “learn how to play baseball.” I was probably five or six at the time. “Learning how to play baseball” meant I was the catcher –more accurately, I was a human target, and my brother would throw fastball after fastball at me. If I got tired or began to cry, he would walk up to me and ask, “Would Johnny Bench cry?” As a little kid, I was a fan of the Cincinnati Reds and the Big Red Machine. Of course, my brother knew that I knew Johnny Bench would never cry. So, I would wipe away the tear and we kept going.

Soon, I actually learned how to hit a fastball. A home run for me was anything that landed in the Delugolecki’s backyard. They were next door. For my brother, it was the Yaworski’s yard. They were two houses over. After baseball, it was basketball then football. And soon you could not keep me out of a playground or street game with the boys in the neighborhood.

President Casamento grew up several blocks – a baseball’s throw – from the Utica University campus

I have served Utica University for more than 19 years, the past seven as president. I am a prime example of someone who was and is willing to give anything a try, someone who has always been curious and interested in learning new things, someone who has kept her eyes and heart open to life’s possibilities. No one could have ever convinced a young girl growing up on Lenox Ave in the late 60s and early 70s that she would one day grow up to become, first, a bank president, and later a university president - to break that glass ceiling not once, but twice. But as I take pride in telling students, that girl did all of those things, and the world is open to all kinds of possibilities for you, too, if you just seize them as they are presented to you. The easy way out is usually never the best way. Learn how to handle the fastball as early as you can.

To all of my colleagues at Utica University, thank you for joining me every day in the support and love for our students. Utica University is part of the heartbeat of this city, part of the soul of the Mohawk Valley, and forever part of my heart. 