Emanating from Shippensburg

Rosa stated emphatically she was taking this summer off. She had worked hard, got good grades, and now deserved to take a break.

Rosa knows she has the entrepreneurial spirit and wouldn’t be surprised to find herself a small business owner like her parents. Here they take a moment before opening their restaurant, Italian Villege, for dinner.

However, you might find her idea of a break and yours are not the same. The only difference an observer can see is that Rosa no longer works to get good grades. Her graduation in May took care of that.

She was still doing community outreach with the Rotaract Club after the semester was over. One event, she coordinated was the opening of a school store for the students at Luhrs Elementary. She continues her work with the Small Business Development Center on campus. She is working on a retail shopping guide for downtown Shippensburg and compiling a detailed database of commercial real estate. Taking up more time is working at the family business, Italian Village, a restaurant located on the way to Chambersburg. Alumni may be more familiar with the previous family business, Pizza ’n Stuff.

Some of her drive might be attributed to the fact her parents immigrated to the United States from Italy about thirty years ago. “After getting married in Italy, they packed up their things and moved to the United States without speaking a word of English or having a secure plan. They struggled for many years. They started with nothing and worked hard so we (my older brother, sister, and I) could live a better life than they did and have opportunities they only dreamed about.

“There was no choice when it came to colleges,” Rosa said. “It was Shippensburg. Period.”

Rosa’s years at Shippensburg were spent making the most of those opportunities. She studied in Seville, Spain for a semester and has traveled to Morocco, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Portugal. And yes, she has been to Italy numerous times.

Wanting to learn more about herself and what she wanted from life led to an internship in Washington, D.C. “I always thought I wanted to live in a large city,” Rosa remarked, “but I learned I like small towns better. It also opened my eyes to the corporate world and helped me realize I have an entrepreneurial spirit just like my parents.”

She may be taking a break this summer, but Rosa is planning for her future. Her father has decided he doesn’t want to work forever in the restaurant business, so she and her dad take broker trips in anticipation of maybe a travel business based on the demographics of Cumberland and Franklin counties.

So in between working several jobs and volunteering, Rosa finds time to plan for the not so distant future. Travel to Costa Rico in January has been changed to looking for a job with the government and the opportunities to travel and pursue graduate school. “The government is always looking for employees who speak more than one language.”

But that’s for now. As she so aptly puts it – “I have options!”

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Rosa Emanato ’08

Hometown: Shippensburg

Major: International Business, Spanish minor

Campus Activities: SU Rotaract Club’s director of community service (helped found the organization on campus); Beta Gamma Sigma

Hobbies: Hiking, swimming, social activities. Likes puzzles. Tries to garden.

Future Goals: “I would like to work for small businesses. I hope to land a job that will send me back to school. Eventually I would like to get my master’s and doctorate in entrepreneurship so I can become a college professor.

“I change my mind every other week about my choice of job and where I want to live. I have too many options!”