Since 1968, Frank Giordano has been dividing his time between Rutgers University–Camden and the business world. Having enrolled at age 17, he stacked his courses in the mornings, then spent afternoons and evenings revamping his father’s trailer-repair business. Now president and CEO of the Philly POPS, Giordano is deeply involved with the School of Business–Camden, where he and his wife, Dorothy, recently established a $50,000 endowed scholarship.

Last spring, Giordano CCAS’72, SBC’72 participated in the school’s Business Leader Development Program, which enables outstanding students to shadow an executive for a day. He was paired with Jordan Parent, a business management major who was balancing a rigorous academic schedule with a full-time job in construction and a part-time job teaching kickboxing classes. “She was in business like I was in college,” Giordano says, adding that for someone her age “to be in the construction business and do the pricing of the contracts was fascinating, I thought.”

Unable to survey Giordano’s entire professional world in one day—he remains president and CEO of the business he developed, Atlantic Trailer Leasing Corporation, and is a prominent member of the Union League of Philadelphia—Giordano and Parent scheduled additional meetings. These included events at Giordano’s home last summer: a barbecue for the POPS and a 300-person pig roast for the Union League. Parent, now a junior, says, “I feel like I have a mentor for the first time.” Giordano says that there was tremendous value in seeing his businesses through Parent’s eyes. She “reminded me a little of myself,” he says. “It was a very good match.” •