By Phil Paquette
Long Island Caddie Scholar Julia Posillico graduated from College of the Holy Cross in May after a productive four years that included writing a defending a thesis, editing the business and economics student newspaper, and studying abroad in Florence. She just began her first job with Blumenfeld Development Group, a real estate development firm based on Long Island.
Throughout high school and college, Posillico worked at Eisenhower Park Golf Course, where she worked PGA camps and worked in the pro shop. Her work in service to golf made her eligible for a caddie scholarship from the LICSF.
Posillico was a double major in Italian and economics at Holy Cross, with the two realms intersecting during her semester abroad in Florence. While there, she took economics courses in Italian at the University of Florence.
Posillico’s mother – whose first language was Italian – still has family that lives in southern Italy.
The trip abroad wasn’t the only highlight of Posillico’s academic career at Holy Cross. She also wrote and defended an 18-month thesis on consumers’ willingness to pay for allergy-safe foods when she was accepted into Holy Cross’s school of business and the economics honors program. For the thesis, she surveyed around 700 people with food allergies.
“I have a lot of allergies, so it's a topic that is important to me,” says Posillico. “I see how much more expensive food – the same food – is, and it just has that nut-free label on it. So, I see how much more consumers are willing to pay for that label.”
The whole process of data collection, research, understanding and using the data, and presenting the end-product made for a stressful 18 months for Julia but all those experiences will now help her in her professional career.
“It definitely carried over to my new job,” says Posillico. “Bringing that confidence into everything I do and not questioning and second-guessing myself.”
At Blumenfeld, she works on the development team with compliance and the firm’s properties. As she works her way through training, she will get more involved with financial analysis.
Writing a thesis and studying abroad would be enough for most college students. Not for Posillico, though. She was also involved with the College Street Journal – the business and economics newspaper at Holy Cross. Her involvement started when she was a freshman, when the paper debuted on campus, and it her role grew as she progressed through school ane eventually served as editor in chief as a senior.
Julia drew from her experiences working at Eisenhower Park to manage the different writers and tasks while working at the newspaper.
“Because golf is something I know so much about, I am very comfortable and I was able to work on my communication skills with a wide range of people, from seven-year-old campers to older gentlemen in the pro shop,” says Posillico. “I got good at handling a lot of different personalities.”
Julia and her brother Robert have a shared bond through the LICSF and Holy Cross – Robert caddied at Cold Spring Country Club and also received a scholarship from the LICSF, attending Holy Cross and graduating in 2023.
All these experiences and skills learned from her time at Eisenhower, to Holy Cross, to the University of Florence have given her the foundation to be confident and successful in her career.