$1 Million Gift to Arts and Sciences Leadership Center
Thursday, October 3, 2019
A long-time resident of Windsor, Connecticut, Gentile was a graduate of Seton Hall, receiving his degree from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1958. A veteran of the United States Army, he was an employee of the Phoenix Mutual Insurance Company – spending many years in the insurance industry.
A loyal supporter of the University during his lifetime, Gentile remembered his alma mater in his estate plan with a bequest of $1 million, said to have been "out of gratitude for the values-based education received at Seton Hall." In honor of the gift, the University will name its Leadership Center in the College of Arts and Sciences "The Louis and Vivienne Gentile Arts and Sciences Leadership Center."
"This gift will allow the Center to implement programming that will put our students at the forefront of effective leadership development," said Dean Peter W. Shoemaker of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Through cross and intra-discipline training and programming designed especially for their future professions, students in the Louis and Vivienne Gentile Arts and Sciences Leadership Center will be prepared for their careers in a way now unparalleled in higher education."
The Arts and Sciences Leadership Center is part of the newly launched Buccino Leadership Institute, which is the first interdisciplinary undergraduate leadership program of its kind in the United States.
For five years in a row the Gerald P. Buccino '63 Center for Leadership Development in Seton Hall's Stillman School of Business earned a top ranking in the LEAD Awards sponsored by HR.com. The organization named the Business Center as the #1 Certificate Program with Emphasis on Leadership/Organizational Development in the nation.
To build on that success, Seton Hall launched the new Buccino Leadership Institute, expanding leadership development to students outside of the School of Business. The Institute is comprised of distinctive centers in six schools and colleges at the University (including the Louis and Vivienne Gentile Arts and Sciences Leadership Center) that work together to develop the next generation of leaders.
"In the program, students in a variety of majors learn about the principles of leadership and learn from each other as a cohort, and then receive leadership development that is specifically tailored to their future profession," said Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Bryan C. Price, Ph.D., founding executive director of the Institute and one of the nation's top leadership experts. "It is a comprehensive, four-year program that combines unique experiential opportunities to lead interdisciplinary teams and feedback from Institute faculty, professional leadership coaches and their peers. There's nothing else like it in the country."
The gift will be used to fund various initiatives within the Center, including a leadership coaching program, industry-leading personal assessments (personality, behavioral and emotional intelligence) along with other performance psychology initiatives for students within the program, site visits, conference travel, student and faculty research, stipends and course release coverage as well as guest speakers and events.
