Eugene Imperato and his sister, Pauline Imperato Romano Conti
The Valley Community Foundation may have some money for you.
April 16 is the deadline to apply for the Imperato Family Scholarship Fund, a fund within the Valley Community Foundation.
Applicants for the scholarship, created in 2003, have been elusive. The qualifications have been tweaked and expanded in an effort to get more students to apply.
The fund’s goal is “to award college scholarship(s) to graduates or graduating seniors of Derby High School who plan to pursue an education in Business, preferably a Masters.”
Fit the bill? Click here for more info and to apply.
The scholarship honors the family of the late Eugene Imperato. He was Valley, through and through.
One of seven first-generation children in an Italian-American Derby family, the child of the Great Depression grew up to be a successful businessman who owned a variety of retail stores and restaurants in Ansonia and Waterbury.
Also a committed philanthropist — he was a founding member of both the Connecticut Hurricanes Drum and Bugle Corps and the Derby Little League. Imperato strongly believed in trying to give others a helping hand.
That’s why upon his death in 2002, Imperato bequeathed money to start the scholarship.
“He was always investing energy and time in organizing opportunities for mostly young people to get together and do things in and out of business,” one of Imperato’s nephews, Paul Romano said. “He just believed in the Valley people and the Valley work ethic.”
Romano said that Imperato, a “very adamant” believer in education, believed his generation “had lots of potential, lots of capability, but there weren’t as many success stories in business at that time.”
Though the Imperato fund was initially set up under the direction of the Community Foundation For Greater New Haven, it was moved to the Valley Community Foundation in 2009 after Romano’s mother, Pauline Imperato Romano Conti, died in 2009.
The scholarship was first intended to go toward Derby High School students already enrolled in college. It became tough to find applicants.
James Cohen, president of the Valley Community Foundation, said a four-year period went by during which no scholarships were distributed at all.
Cohen said there is about $100,000 in the fund now, producing about $6,000 per year in interest that can be distributed.
There is no set, per-year award for the scholarship, Romano said, adding that awards are based on financial need and the cost of tuition at an applicant’s school.
“We also wanted to do this in a way that it wasn’t a one-time thing,” he added, noting that if a person who receives money from the fund achieves a reasonable grade point average, they will most likely receive additional money in subsequent years. “As you get into these, you’re really making four-year commitments.”
Romano said his uncle was part of a generation of people grateful for the opportunities they had who wanted to leave a legacy of their way of life behind.
“He was really proud to have grown up in Derby and to have been a Valley resident, and a lifelong Valley resident, and really believed in the quality of the people there,” Romano said, adding that he is proud to be involved in helping people “have better chances to be able to prove themselves in the larger business field.”
