March 15, 2010
When Joan Lacagnina ’88CBA speaks of her transformation from an
undergraduate student at St. John’s University to her current
position as a Controller at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company,
she is quick to express her gratitude for the exceptional help that
she received from the University’s Career Center when seeking her
first job.
“It was very different when I was a student at St. 
John’s,”
she recalled. “The interviewers came right onto campus and
the staff of the Career Center was really great about getting
everyone interviews. My first interview, like many other students,
was with the firm of Arthur Andersen, one of the Big Five
accounting firms at the time. We were all academically
prepared and had good resumes, but none of us did very well during
the interview. We found out later that some of us were too quiet,
some too talkative, others too shy…this was a whole new experience
for us and we were doing something wrong.”
Lacagnina secured a position at Deloitte & Touche after
graduation, and found herself back on campus doing recruiting
interviews from the other side of the desk. “It was then that I
decided that young people should be taught the skills of basic
business etiquette, especially since so many students are seeking
internships as a way of getting some hands-on experience in their
future careers. These students, many of who are no more than 19 or
20 years old, are meeting and talking with corporate partners and
other high level executives. They need to be prepared to sit in a
room or at a table with them and hold a conversation. Had we
known this back when I was a student, we would have been much
better prepared.”
She recently sponsored and co-hosted a
business etiquette seminar on the University’s Staten Island
campus and was impressed by the amount of interest and insight
shown by the students. “They had great questions and were making
serious plans for their future careers, even though many of them
were still freshmen or sophomores. Many young people think that
they have so much time to think about getting a job that they wait
until their senor year. It’s nice to see that it’s not that way
with St. John’s students.”
Lacagnina has remained loyal and supportive of her alma
mater in many ways. She is a member of The Loughlin
Society, a leadership giving society reserved for donors who make
annual gifts to the University of $1,000 or more, and regularly
supports the President’s Dinner and the Staten Island Scholarship
Dinner. Lacagnina also makes it a point to offer internships at
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company to qualified St. John’s
students. “Right now I have three interns from St. John’s,” she
noted. “One is with me permanently and the other two are
graduating. We’re always trying to keep our St. John’s
students with us, and there are a number of [St. John’s] alumni who
are professional colleagues with us as well.”
Acknowledging the Vincentian values that have always been a
unique aspect of the St. John’s experience, she remarked that those
values became an important part of her life from her first days on
campus. “The University taught us to care about others, and they
did it very well. Many of us had some of these values going
in from our upbringing at home, but I think that St. John’s really
brought them out. Those values are some of the best things
that the University taught us.”
Lacagnina was quick to offer practical advice to the students
who hope to one day follow in her footsteps. “Students in
today’s world can’t procrastinate,” she said. “They need to
stay focused and work hard, and they also need to realize that
whatever they decide to do in life, it has to be something that
makes them happy. They need to remember that their past and
present will always be a part of their future, and to plan
accordingly, because life is one continuous road.”