Providence College science complex renovation funded through $1M estate gift

PICTURED IS A RENDERING OF THE science complex renovation at Providence College. The college on Wednesday announced the receipt of a $1 million gift from the estate of Leo Caiafa Jr. to help renovate and expand the school’s science complex, the first major gift made toward the multi-year project, and create the Lucille and Leo Caiafa Jr. Center for Psychological Sciences. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE COLLEGE
PICTURED IS A RENDERING OF THE science complex renovation at Providence College. The college on Wednesday announced the receipt of a $1 million gift from the estate of Leo Caiafa Jr. to help renovate and expand the school’s science complex, the first major gift made toward the multi-year project, and create the Lucille and Leo Caiafa Jr. Center for Psychological Sciences. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE COLLEGE

PROVIDENCE – Providence College on Wednesday announced the receipt of a $1 million gift from the estate of Leo Caiafa Jr. to help renovate and expand the school’s science complex, the first major gift made toward the multi-year project, and create the Lucille and Leo Caiafa Jr. Center for Psychological Sciences.

Rev. Brian J. Shanley, the college’s president, said the updated facility will help students and faculty “thrive in their scholarly pursuits.”

He added: “These infrastructure improvements, which are critical to teaching, learning and discovery, are enabled by support from our friends. We are delighted that Mr. Caiafa’s legacy, and that of his family, will live on through the impact of this gift.”

The Caiafa family chose Providence College to receive the gift because of the positive experience Julianne Szemko, Class of 2019, Caiafa’s grand-niece, is having studying psychology in the school’s liberal arts honors program.

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The renovation, which began in June, will take four years to complete.

The complex’s three main buildings; Albertus Magnus Hall, which opened in 1948; Hickey Hall, a laboratory building which opened in 1962 and Sowa Hall, faculty offices that opened in 1989, will be united under the new design. The new entrance will be a 37,000-square foot, four-story addition. Other renovations will include 61,885 square feet of laboratory space, three new technology enhanced classrooms, a rooftop observatory, a computer modeling and computations lab, a microscopy suite and a detached greenhouse.

Also included in the design is a shared administrative space for the psychology, chemistry, biology and engineering-physics-systems department heads.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Caiafa served in World War II and ran an automotive shop in Amarillo, Texas for 40 years; he died in 2013. Szemko’s mother, Angela SanFilippo Szemko, said her uncle always encouraged her daughter to save for education.

She added: “We wanted to do something close to where we live so that we could see the benefits. Because Providence College is a Catholic college, and such a great school and doing so much wonderful new rebuilding to become a top-tier college, we felt it would be a great use of my uncle’s funds.”

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