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Bricks lay foundation for YSU Circle
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Elizabeth Arroyo Cuevas and four of her children graduated from Youngstown State University, and a commemorative brick marks their educational accomplishments.
Arroyo Cuevas’ brick is among the 500 bricks in YSU’s Centennial Circle. The Circle, which surrounds the sculpture of Howard W. Jones, was dedicated in a Friday morning ceremony.
Arroyo Cuevas’ brick includes her name and those of four of her children along with the years they graduated from YSU: Arroyo Cuevas, 1996; Ernesto Jr., 2000; Alan M., 2007; Jeremy N., 2008; and Kristina, 2009. Her youngest daughter, Monica, wanted to go away to school and graduated from Columbia University in New York.
“I wish my dad was here to see it,” Arroyo Cuevas of Boardman said. “It’s all because of my dad. He valued education. It was education after God.”
Her father was born in Puerto Rico and came to the area to work in the steel mills.
Jones was the university’s first president, serving from 1931 to 1966 when it was Youngstown College and then Youngstown University. His daughter, Marilyn Chuey, was among the ceremony attendees.
The bricks are engraved with the names of alumni, students, faculty and staff members along with messages such as “Go Penguins” and “Thanks YSU.”
“Centennial Circle first came through the gift of Tony Lariccia, who believed Howard Jones should be remembered throughout campus and the community,” said Cynthia E. Anderson, YSU president.
The statue was unveiled in May 2008 during the university’s centennial celebration.
Anderson said she can see the statue from her office window and sees people walking across campus to stop and look at it.
Catherine Cala, director of development, said the $92,000 raised through the sale of bricks will go to an endowment for the campus beautification initiative, which will help sustain the parklike campus and its 2,000 trees for future generations.