Lisa Ficarotta Zupcich '82

Lisa (Ficarotta) Zupcich’82, who grew up in Astoria, wasn’t totally sure she wanted to go to an all girls’ school. Despite her initial doubts, she was impressed with Cathedral. But, then, to her surprise, she got waitlisted. “I thought, Oh no. Now what?” said Lisa?

She was mentally preparing to go to another Catholic school, which was the same school her mother had attended, where her parents were married and Lisa was baptized. When she got the good news, she remembers her father meeting her after she got off work. He was holding her Cathedral acceptance letter. “I remember celebrating. It was so exciting. Then, I panicked. I thought, ‘I’m going to be with all girls,’” said Lisa.

On her first day of school Lisa was paired with her senior sister, Sheryl Liburd, who showed her the ropes. “My parents were so appreciative of Sheryl taking me under her wing when I was nervous about things,” said Lisa. Lisa got involved at school by joining the choir. “We were able to sing for the Pope [Pope John Paul II] when he came. It was a great experience,” she said.

When Lisa’s father became ill, in addition to the emotional difficulty of the situation, she also became concerned about her family’s finances. She will never forget how her teachers and principal helped her.

“My parents had fallen behind on tuition. I wanted to leave Cathedral and go to public school because I didn’t want to be a burden to my parents financially.” Lisa went to her principal and told him she was thinking about transferring schools. “He said, ‘Your job is to do well in school. Our job is to figure that stuff out,’” said Lisa.

She felt that in particular, one of her teachers found a way to help. “I loved my music teacher, Mr. DeCarlo. He was tough on us but I always left his class feeling uplifted. I did like school. Unfortunately, because of my dad’s illness, I couldn’t go to college. I needed to go to work to help with the bills for my parents. I didn’t talk about what was going on at home while I was in school, but I think Mr. DeCarlo knew,” said Lisa. “I imagine the teachers spoke about it in the lounge or meetings. I’ll never forget this day as long as I live. I was working after school at a supermarket as a cashier and one day after class Mr. DeCarlo approached me and he said, ‘What would you think about working for DFS [advertising agency] after school?’”

At first, Lisa didn’t want to leave her job at the supermarket, but she promised her teacher she would go to the interview. “It turned out his wife was the person interviewing me. She offered me the job,” said Lisa. She took the position working in client accounting.

The following year, when she was about to graduate from Cathedral, her manager told her about an open full-time position in the company. Lisa got the job. That was 1982. Eventually, the company moved downtown and became Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising. She became an estimated biller, then operations manager, then billing supervisor, and then vice president.

Now, after leaving Saatchi & Saatchi for a few years to work at a hospital, she is back at the company, where she is working in the corporate accounting finance department with some of her former colleagues that she has known since 1981.

Lisa, who still lives in New York, has kept up with her group of high school friends. They try to get together once a year and talk about family, life, and work. “We’re able to just be there for each other,” she said.

And, it turns out that being at an all girls’ school didn’t prevent Lisa from finding a life-long love. Twenty-eight years ago, she married her high school prom date, Frank. Her senior sister, Sheryl, attended the wedding.

Because of her own experience at Cathedral, Lisa continues to give back. “If I made more money, I would give more money, because I do realize that back when my parents were struggling that perhaps there was a fund that helped me. They told me, my job was to do my school work and not worry about that. So, that is why I contribute. I have good memories. And, there could be another student that is in need of this,” said Lisa.

“I’m not embarrassed by what happened. It was just a situation that happened to my family. My dad got ill when I was 13. I think that because your family falls on hard times financially it doesn’t mean that a young student shouldn’t be given an opportunity to get a great education, and I think Cathedral offers that. They offered that to me,” said Lisa.