Richard Ferraiolo has gone through some sweeping career changes during the last 20 years. He started at Penn in 1976 as a janitor in the Towne Building. Today, he works in the same facility, only he no longer pushes a broom--he pushes a pencil. The manager of administration and finance, Ferraiolo handles a $25 million budget for six engineering departments.

Ferraiolo never set out to be a janitor. He never set out to be a financial manager, either. "A few months before finishing high school, I was still hoping that some college, even the tiniest college in the United States, would come and offer me a football scholarship," he said. "I waited, and waited, and waited, but nobody came."

Instead of applying for college, he applied for a job at Penn's housekeeping department. "For the first two years it was great," he remembered. "I had money and could go down the Jersey shore and play with my buddies in the summer. That was all I cared about."

But being surrounded by students his age had an impact on the young Ferraiolo. "I could see they were having a good time in college and had a bright future," he said. "I started to think about going to college myself. I thought it would have to be full time, so I applied to Temple University and got accepted."

Ferraiolo quit Penn and took a summer vacation down the shore, expecting to start school in the fall. When he returned to Philadelphia, however, he learned Temple had not given him financial aid. This forced him to relinquish his dream of becoming a full-time college student.

Ferraiolo returned to his old job. But this time, he wanted more than money. "As soon as I came back to Penn, I filled out the application for studying at night," he said.

Ferraiolo decided to go for a degree in accounting from Wharton--and for good reason. While in school, he struggled with all subjects but one: mathematics. "I knew I could do math, but could I do the whole academic act?" he said. "I wasn't sure."

During the day, Ferraiolo polished floors. At night, he polished his accounting skills. It wasn't easy. As he suspected, he did well in accounting courses, but he had to work harder in other classes. Also, the demands of a full-time job and part-time education required many sacrifices.

"The hardest part of working as a janitor during the day and taking classes in the evenings was the summer," he explained. "In winter and fall you don't miss much in the evenings. But boy, during the summer I wanted badly to go and play basketball with my friends. Instead I studied. I was getting all the work of college but none of the playing. To this day I still regret that; you are young only once."

Still, spending summers at Penn did have some benefits. While working and studying at the University in the summer of 1980, Ferraiolo met his wife, Sherry, who, at the time, was also a Penn employee.

"She was supportive in allowing me to work and study without adding too many of the additional pressures of a relationship," Ferraiolo said. "She also helped me a lot in preparing for tests."

Meeting his wife-to-be wasn't the only good thing that happened to Ferraiolo in 1980. During that year, he quit his job as a janitor to become project budget assistant in the building he had previously cleaned: Towne.

Ferraiolo obtained an associate's degree in accounting from Wharton in 1982. By then he was already a trainee business administrator for the mechanical- and civil-engineering departments.

He didn't stop there. Ferraiolo continued to study, hoping to earn a bachelor's degree. He graduated from Wharton with honors in 1986. He immediately started to study for the Certified Public Accountant's exams and became a CPA in 1988.

"That was the closest I ever came to leaving Penn," he said. "I got an interview with one of the big accounting firms. I knew there was a lot of uncertainty in the field, and being married with one child at the time, I decided to forfeit the glamour of CPA for the security I felt at Penn. Eight months after I declined the offer, the same accounting firm went under."

Ferraiolo may have stayed at Penn, but he didn't stay still. "Whenever it was possible, I asked my supervisors for more responsibilities," he said.

"The tasks in this office have not changed much, but the departments for which we perform them have grown, while our personnel has not," he added. "The people who work here are wonderful. All that I have done has been possible because of them."

The future holds even more challenges for Ferraiolo. This July, Penn will begin implementing a new, improved accounting system. And, at the moment, Ferraiolo is in the process of integrating the financial responsibilities of his office's most recent addition: the materials science and engineering department. "The goal is always to serve the added new departments without diminishing the services we provide to the old departments," he said. "It's a juggling act."

That's an act with which Ferraiolo is very familiar. He's been doing it for two decades.

Return to Compass Features for April 2, 1996