Family is everything to Olivia, a Strategic Communication major, but Pitt State ranks a close second. At age 2, she wanted to live in Pittsburg with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and after spending weekends here, she would cry the whole trip home to Kansas City.
Her family’s connection to Pitt State began when Olivia’s grandfather moved to Pittsburg in 1946 from New York. Al (BSEd ‘74, MA ‘83, EdS ‘87) was the first person in his family to attend college — he wanted a chance at a better life.
Al soon met Olivia’s grandmother, Virginia Sullivan, and knew this was home.
They built a house and had five children, all of whom attended Pitt State.
Virginia cooked pregame meals every game day for the baseball team and Sunday dinners for athletes who couldn’t afford a meal, and on holidays invited international students who couldn’t travel home to join in their family celebration. She was voted Apple Day Queen and she represented Pittsburg at the American Royal beauty pageant.
Al went down in history as the university’s first baseball coach and the longest serving athletic trainer, from 1949 to 1998. He also represented Pitt State at four Olympic Games. The baseball field is named in his honor, as well as a street named Al Ortolani Way.
Their daughter, Olivia’s mother Jennifer (BSEd ‘92, MS ‘98), made her mark on Pitt State just as her parents did: she spent game days assisting Al on the sidelines as a student athletic trainer, and was a dedicated member and captain of the dance team.
In her first few years as a teacher, Jennifer won the Clyde U. Phillips Outstanding Young Educator Award from Pitt State and was named a finalist for the Kansas Teacher of the Year in 1996.
Olivia’s father, Bobby (BBA ‘94), was a member of the legendary 1991 National Championship football team and was inducted into the Pitt State Athletic Hall of Fame.
His late sister, Lynn Tavernaro (BSEd ‘89), was a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma, and Olivia is carrying on that legacy.
“For as long as I can remember, the values of family, tradition, and excellence were ingrained into my DNA from everyone around me,” Olivia said.
Olivia and her sister, Sully, a senior in high school, grew up considering her father’s football teammates and her mother’s dance teammates aunts and uncles.
Her extended family also includes more than 30 Pitt State graduates who were members of Tri Sigma, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Sigma Chi, Phi Sigma Kappa, Pride of the Plains Marching Band, and other organizations.
In their communities, those family members have found ways to make a difference. In Overland Park, the Tavernaros have raised money for pancreatic cancer research in honor of Al, and for breast cancer research in honor of Lynn. Olivia and her mother have advocated nationally for Holocaust education and have supported local efforts like Special Olympics.
And, they’ve made it a priority to support each other.
“We have gone through so much as a Pitt State family, and we pick each other up when we fall, always there for each other through the good and the bad,” Olivia said. “These bonds were created right here. I am incredibly proud to call this my family, and I am incredibly proud to live on with their legacy and call myself a Gorilla.”
“Something I will forever be thankful for is family, and family now has a bigger meaning to me, thanks to this university.”
The family will be recognized during halftime of the Family Day game at Carnie Smith Stadium, immediately following a performance by the Pride of the Plains Marching Band.
Learn more about Family Day.