A nurse, a doctor, a firefighter, a veterinarian, a police officer, an astronaut …the list goes on. Ask any young child what they want to be when they grow up and they will most likely answer with these classic roles.
Ray Quirolgico, the new Assistant Vice President of Student Development at Saint Louis University, was no exception. Until his college years, that is.
“I really wanted to be a neurosurgeon, but I didn’t want to commit four years of medical school and umpteen years of residency,” Quirolgico said, who graduated from the University of Virginia with a double major in biology and psychology.
One may wonder how a college graduate with science degrees ends up in a university administrative role.
“My third year [of college] I was a [Resident Advisor]. That was when I started to get to know a lot of administrators on campus who started asking me ‘Have you ever thought about doing the kind of work we do?’” Quirolgico said. “No one grows up thinking that they will be an educational administrator.”
Quirolgico went on to obtain a doctoral degree in education to work in a field that truly interested him: Student Affairs.
“I loved the stimulation of it,” Quirolgico said. “I loved the life cycle of it. Planning orientation and seeing commencement happen, all of that was fun for me.”
With experience in multiple positions at various universities, Quirolgico had his first exposure to higher-level Jesuit education—other than his high school career in New York City—at the University of San Francisco. He dealt with residence life at USF and incorporated the Jesuit ideals of the university into his work, a similar sentiment to his goals for his time at SLU.
Quirolgico will be working with Housing and Residence Life and the Cross Cultural Center, but he does not see the work of the departments as separate.
“One of my questions for myself and for those two departments I work with is ‘What do we always do with the privilege of being here?’” Quirolgico said.
Having worked in the student living for many years, Quirolgico is no stranger to student complaints. Quirolgico, however, challenges not only himself, but also the campus community to think about those “in the same ZIP code” who do not have shelter or adequate options for food.
“That’s what SLU does. It challenges adults to think, in the context of your life, what makes sense,” Quirolgico said. “How do you make sense of the world and how can you contribute to the world to make it an even better place, for yourself and for others?”
Quirolgico said that his intentions revolve around all students experiencing some sense of a cross-cultural education and wants students to be able to admit their ignorance on various topics.
“It takes a lot of courage to say ‘I don’t know about blank’,” Quirolgico said. He said that admitting a lack of knowledge is the first step to make changes and have a renewed sensibility.
Knowledge of every culture is not possible, but Quirolgico certainly has a taster for the culture of preforming arts, especially theatre and musicals.
“I’m such a theatre fan. When you asked ‘what’s your favorite play or musical’ I started to break that down into subcategories,” Quirolgico said.
Not only is Quirolgico a supporter of the performing arts, but also has had a hand in producing plays. During his years at the University of Virginia, Quirolgico helped produce a performance of Godspell, in which one cast member was Tina Fey, a fellow alumnus of his alma mater.
“The cast party was at my fraternity house, because a couple other of my brothers were also involved with the production,” Quirolgico said. “Tina Fey and I were dancing on a radiator in front of a giant pane-glass window—totally not safe to do now—to a mix tape I helped make.”
When he is not dancing on heating appliance with celebrities, Quirolgico enjoys watching television, Iyengar yoga and reading books on topics such as Ebola, Small Pox and paleontology.
“I just finished a book written by a paleontologist and geologist,” he said. “That’s my pleasure reading.”
