Skating to Success

by Jessica Winter

In an attempt to overcome his “middle child syndrome,” Joseph “Joe” Fiorino ’21’s parents put a young Fiorino onto the ice for skating lessons and, before he knew it, he was playing ice hockey. “That’s how I got started,” reflects Fiorino. “It was my whole life.” In high school, Fiorino played on two teams – one at the school and other in an extracurricular club. Fiorino, a Pennsylvania native, practiced twice a day and played 90 games each year.

After graduating high school, Fiorino took a couple years away from the ice. But he didn’t stay away for long. He got back onto the ice as a junior hockey player, while he worked a part-time job. At that time, he was playing 60 games per year. Fiorino was approached by Southern New Hampshire University and invited to study and play ice hockey at the school. Having seen the SNHU commercials on TV, Fiorino thought the university was an exclusively online school. He was intrigued to discover that SNHU has a brick-and-mortar campus and made a visit to Manchester, New Hampshire.

“It was gorgeous,” says Fiorino of his first reaction when stepping foot on campus. “There were so many nice buildings and New Hampshire is a gorgeous state on its own.” The local area also offered a downtown with lots of nice restaurants and amazing hiking opportunities. Fiorino knew his experience would be different at SNHU – and it was.

Fiorino accepted the invitation to SNHU, but little did he know, the experience would open him up to so many other opportunities. He enrolled in the cohort-based Bradley Three Year Business Honors program. Because of the small campus size, cohort-based program and men’s hockey team, Fiorino was able to make lots of meaningful connections quickly. “The Bradley program professors were very good for freshmen coming in,” reflects Fiorino. “They helped make the transition from a high school to college setting smooth and they were always available to help.”

When Fiorino first started his SNHU journey, he only saw himself as a student-athlete. Then someone nominated him to be a presidential ambassador. In this student leadership role, SNHU sophomores, juniors and seniors serve as ambassadors to the university president and focus on fostering community, living with integrity, taking pride in loyalty and encouraging society to engage civically. After participating in several community service initiatives, Fiorino began to think that he should expand his horizons beyond athletics. He then joined the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and experienced an opportunity for further connection. “With SAAC, it was great to get in the room and hear the experiences athletes on other teams were having,” reflects Fiorino.

“I’m very appreciative of the opportunities I was given to get involved,” says Fiorino. “I feel like I would’ve had regrets, looking back, if I didn’t take advantage. I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone.”

Fiorino also stepped into yet another leadership role on SNHU’s men’s hockey team when, as the team’s co-captain, he helped the team get involved in a mental health awareness event. The team partnered with the New Hampshire nonprofit organization Connor’s Climb Foundation in February 2022 to raise awareness around the topics of mental health and youth suicide. The organization was started after 14-year-old Connor Ball of Exeter, New Hampshire, died by suicide in 2011.  The men’s hockey team played a “Stick It to Stigma” game to raise mental health awareness among student-athletes. Stigma around mental health remains strong, especially in men’s sports. “I think it’s a really important topic that needs to be made known and discussed, and I was really happy we did that event,” says Fiorino.

Consistently earning a GPA above 3.9, Fiorino earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 2021 and is set to become a two-time SNHU graduate in 2022 with a Master of Business Administration. Both degrees include a minor in accounting.

Fiorino accepted a consulting job at Grant Thornton in 2022, working out of their Boston office. He credits SNHU’s Career and Professional Development Center with his success in landing the role. “SNHU does a great job with career development,” says Fiorino. “I have friends who graduated from other colleges with no interview knowledge and no LinkedIn profile. I had a whole class on professional communication, setting up my LinkedIn and mock interviewing to hone my skills. I found that really useful.”

Local accounting firms were at an SNHU career fair and that’s how Fiorino landed an accounting internship. “That internship experience played a big part in getting my current role,” says Fiorino. His future is bright. 

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