Niagara University-College of Hospitality and Tourism Management

A scholarship established to memorialize "Mr. Italy" Mario Perillo will support Niagara University students who participate in the College of Hospitality and Tourism Management’s signature Lake Como, Italy, work abroad program. In April, Mark Henning, a junior from Hamburg, N.Y., received the first of these annual awards."This scholarship is a living testimony to the legacy of Mario Perillo," said Dr. Gary Praetzel, dean of the college. He noted that the funds will be used to help the work-abroad students with their travel and living expenses during the 10-week work-abroad program. While participants receive room and board from the hotels they work for, they also incur unmet expenses during their time in Italy.The Mario P. Perillo Memorial Scholarship was set up through donations to the Perillo Tours Foundation and the efforts of Stephen Perillo, Mario’s son and board trustee, after Mario’s death on Feb. 28, 2003. Mario Perillo had a long relationship with Niagara, beginning as a student at the university in 1944 and continuing through his receipt of the College of Hospitality’s inaugural Lifetime Tourism Achievement Award on Nov. 7, 2001. Perillo was chairman of the board of Perillo Tours, an organization that sends more people on escorted tours to Italy than any other tour operator in the United States. The company, with headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., is in its 60^th year of business. Niagara University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management’s Lake Como work-abroad program is a life-altering experience for the students who participate, said Praetzel. Launched last summer, the program enables 10 students to spend the summer employed at several luxury properties in Italy, learning service from some of the most opulent hotels in the world. Participating properties include the Villa d’Este, which has been ranked as Europe’s top hotel; the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni; the Hotel Barchetta Excelsior, and the Hotel du Lac."Service standards in these kinds of properties are unparalleled," said Praetzel. He noted that the work-abroad program offers a total cultural immersion experience for the participating students, who live at the hotels while they work alongside the other employees in all of the property’s departments, including the reception and concierge desks, in housekeeping and in the hotel restaurants."What better testament to the person known as ‘Mr. Italy" than to support our students who live and work in Italy," Praetzel said. "This scholarship will help our students to achieve their objectives, and hopefully become as successful as Mario."