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By Kyla Guilfoil, Senior Writer
The Quadrangle has been home to hundreds of Manhattan College students interested in the campus community, journalism, photography, art and storytelling. The newspaper has drawn some of the college’s best and brightest to contribute to its pages over the last 100 years, with its alumni having gone on to prove their talents beyond campus.
From published work at Marvel Comics, to managing press campaigns for books at Simon & Schuster and production on one of the country’s most beloved morning shows, The Quadrangle’s alum have taken the skills and passion they harbored while on our staff and dispersed them out into the world.
Chris Cirillo, Class of ‘15
Chris Cirillo’s work can be seen on the award-winning morning show, “Good Morning America” at ABC News. A 2015 graduate from Manhattan College, Cirillo also served as sports editor for The Quadrangle while he was an undergrad.
Cirillo said that The Quadrangle gave him a place to develop his aspirations to be a journalist after college, giving him opportunities to chase important stories and experience what it takes to put a story together. When Cirillo was a junior at Manhattan in 2014, the Jaspers’ basketball team won the MAAC Conference Championships, allowing him to travel to Orlando, FL. and cover the Jaspers’ epic showdown with top seed Louisville in the NCAA tournament.
“I think The Quad is where I really realized that this is something that I enjoy and would want to do with 40 hours of my week,” Cirillo said. “I just always loved it, and so I knew that, it confirmed my belief that this is what I wanted to do.”
Since graduating from Manhattan, Cirillo has earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, covered the 2016 Olympics at NBC and been a video journalist at the New York Times. Since 2018, Cirillo has worked at Good Morning America, producing video features, writing scripts and pitching stories for the platform.
In his role at Good Morning America, Cirillo worked on a 25-minute documentary which was featured on Hulu, covering the victims of the Club Q nightclub shooting in 2022. Cirillo said that it was an impactful project for him to work on because it considered the victims of the tragic shooting beyond the night of the crime. He explained that it helped show the impacts of the shooting in a more realistic and true way.
“It was one of those moments where I felt like it was nice to shine a light on [the victims], because I think we tend to forget that when these mass shootings happen, it doesn’t just go away,” Cirillo said.
Lauren Carr, Class of ‘16
Lauren Carr spearheaded entertainment coverage during her undergrad years, serving as assistant arts & entertainment editor for a year, and then head arts & entertainment editor for another two. Now, after graduating from Manhattan in 2016, she takes the lead on publicity campaigns for bestselling books at Simon & Schuster, collaborating with producers and journalists to showcase important and compelling stories.
Carr said she was always very drawn towards entertainment news, always the first to cover plays, festivals and other entertainment events around MC’s campus. She added that her favorite thing about The Quadrangle was the camaraderie and teamwork she experienced with her fellow editors, all working together to bring the best stories of campus life to students.
Originally, Carr wanted to be a producer but found herself taking a publicity position at Scholastic books after graduating. Now, having gone on to be Senior Publicity Manager at Simon & Schuster, Carr said being a publicist is actually quite like being a producer.
“To be a producer, you have to get all the people to come together; the interviews, the writing, the videos,” Carr said. “Being a publicist is very much being a producer.. I still am doing that type of work where I am handed a project and have to pull it together.”
Carr explained that she leads publicity campaigns for Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster which largely focuses on entertainment books. One of the campaigns Carr recently led was for actress Megan Fox’s book, “Pretty Boys are Poisonous.”
Carr works with these authors to help get them on radio, broadcast and digital platforms to promote their books. She also organizes book tours, helping to connect authors with bookstores, venues and media for the cities that they will visit to share their stories.
Mike Fichera, Class of ‘91, ‘93
Mike Fichera, who graduated from Manhattan College with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in environmental engineering in 1991 and 1993, respectively, was drawn to The Quadrangle by his love for drawing comics. While he had decided to pursue a career in engineering, Fichera still held onto his passion for artwork when he got to MC, telling The Quadrangle that he was, “drawing all over campus.”
After doing artwork for Campus Ministry, groups in the dorms and drawing for posters and tee shirts, The Quadrangle approached Fichera about starting a column. By the end of his freshman year, Fichera had established a regular comic strip in the paper, called “Points to Ponder.”
“I just enjoyed having the creative freedom to express myself and take a risk and see what’s funny, see what’s not and see if I get a laugh each week, so it was great,” Fichera said.
Fichera graduated from MC after drawing for the newspaper for all five years he attended the school, helping to keep his passion for art close. After he had gone forward with a successful engineering career, Fichera also kept drawing. In fact, for the last 20 years Fichera has been a freelance writer and artist at Marvel Comics.
Both his artwork and his writing have been featured in several Marvel books, including the Official Handbooks of the Marvel Universe and the Guidebook of the Cinematic Universe. Fichera said that the opportunity to draw and be published at The Quadrangle helped keep him inspired and have a creative outlet, which he has carried on with him through his professional life.
Joe Liggio, Class of ‘19
Joe Liggio ‘19 has put his journalism skills to use in a unique position: a public affairs specialist for the Army National Guard.
Liggio came to MC with an aspiration to pursue storytelling, but was hesitant at first to put himself out there at The Quadrangle. However, a couple months into his freshman year, Liggio found a worm in his salad at Locke’s, leading a Quadrangle editor to interview him for a story. From there, Liggio became a part of the staff, serving as assistant news editor for the entirety of his undergraduate career.
After he graduated from Manhattan, Liggio was working in communications at a nonprofit healthcare organization, VNS Health. After about three and half years there, he went to do something he had always wanted to do: enlist in the military.
But, when Liggio went to enlist, he learned that he could actually take his communications work with him. After joining the Army National Guard, Liggio received further journalism training and became a public affairs specialist. On top of his everyday duties as a soldier, Liggio takes photos, videos and writes stories for the National Guard.
“I went down one day to the recruiting office and I talked to somebody about getting a job doing army journalism,” Liggio said. “And after a few months, I secured that job and enlisted and now I’m here.”
His work has brought him around the world, including taking photos of the Brazilian army in the Amazon jungle.
“It’s a crazy job, it’s an amazing job,” Liggio said. “It really depends on the mission. It’s a lot of work with a lot of different kinds of people.”
Gabriella DePinho, Class of ‘21
Gabriella DePinho traded in her Jasper green for Columbia blue, achieving a master’s degree in journalism in 2023 from Columbia after graduating from Manhattan College in 2021. DePinho currently works as an updates writer at Wirecutter, the product review website affiliated with the New York Times.
Before she took on her full-time reporting role, DePinho was just an underclassman at MC who didn’t quite know what she wanted to do yet. She was originally a psychology major, having entered college with no intention of becoming a full-time journalist. However, DePinho found herself at The Quadrangle and fell in love with the paper and the work that she was doing for it.
She spoke about a meeting she attended with administrators when she was just a freshman, where she felt completely out of place but stayed to make sure the story was covered. After that, DePinho said she felt like she could do anything. She ended up changing her major to communication and was eventually elected editor-in-chief of The Quadrangle in her junior year.
“I just kept taking assignments that I felt were hard and it just got exciting and it became fun and it stopped being scary,” DePinho said. “Then I realized you can legitimately make a career out of talking to people and showing up places and asking questions.”
After she went to Columbia to start her master’s degree, DePinho started working at NBC as an intern for the Select team, which covered deals, tips and product reviews for the platform. She was hired as a product coordinator for the team later that year, and worked there until scoring her full-time role at Wirecutter in Dec. 2022.
DePinho said that her reporting role allows her to learn so much and to have fun with her writing.
“I think I’m surprised by how much fun I’m having with it,” DePinho said. “And I’m just appreciating how much I’m learning.”
“]] By Kyla Guilfoil, Senior Writer The Quadrangle has been home to hundreds of Manhattan College students interested in the campus community, journalism, photography, art and storytelling. The newspap… Read More