Steve Pagios: Building Experiences for All Students

By Sarah Bessette

Stephen Pagios’ work ethic has brought him from working for his family’s candle company at 8 years old all the way to the position of director of Student Engagement. But how does one climb that ladder?

Pagios is the oldest of five children. Born in Houston, Texas, and raised in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Pagios had a different childhood than most of his peers. 

He began working at age 8 for his family’s candle company and worked there until age 25 through college. His work ethic had been developing ever since that young age.

“I haven’t had a summer to myself since I was 7,” he said. 

He would walk to work after school and over the summer. Pagios began learning about everything in the business from the basics of how to develop a candle to marketing techniques.

His time there helped him build a strong work ethic and sense of self. His father is a carpenter, and his mother would help with the financial aspects of the family businesses. 

“There is an added pressure from working for family,” said Pagios, “you don’t want to let them down.”

“My dad was very blue-collar in the sense of getting his hands dirty, so looking for colleges was so weird,” Pagios said.

As a first-generation college student, Pagios had to work hard to understand his place in the collegiate world. 

He attained his undergraduate degree in organizational communication from Assumption College, now Assumption University. It was one of the first colleges that he toured and became the one he chose. 

“It gave me a good feeling,” Pagios said. 

One hurdle that he faced was the size of his college. He attended a small Catholic high school with a graduating class of 28 students, in contrast to his college of over 2000 students. 

“I always love hearing the students that struggle when they start college because I was that student,” he said. “It wasn’t until about mid-October or so when I started to really feel confident in myself.”

He got involved in his first collegiate activity in the spring semester of his first year. 

“I applied to my first programming board and got denied. It’s one of those things that I love sharing because you don’t get everything right away,” Pagios said.

He was later told that he should apply later, which he did. 

“It was the summer of my junior year, and I was selected to be the president of the programming board and the orientation core team,” he said. 

Pagios realized that this was the type of work he wanted as a career. He wanted to work in an advisory role rather than being the one to actually put it on. 

After graduating from Assumption, Pagios went on to Bowling Green State University in Ohio for graduate school. He was set on doing something completely different than he did at Assumption.

“Knowing I was going to do this as a job, I wanted to diversify my experiences,” he said. “I did a lot of the research myself since it was so new to me.” 

He didn’t even think about asking for help from his advisor at Assumption, instead looking at different programs himself.

Pagios searched for a program that would provide free tuition, which is what he found at Bowling Green. 

He was matched with an assistantship at the school, where he was able to work with an office similar to the Office of Student Engagement at Stonehill. This program paid his tuition and offered a stipend for food and housing. 

There were about 40 students in his program, making the large school feel much smaller and personal. 

“I think my skills were functional for other areas if I needed to change paths,” he said.

After graduating, Pagios decided to stay in Ohio for two more years at the University of Akron. Soon he wanted to come back to the Northeast to be closer to family.

“It was getting to that age where cousins were getting married and I wanted to get closer to home,” he said. 

Pagios was hired at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut where he stayed for about four years. 

“I was doing similar things to activities in an assistant director role such as working with student government and programming boards,” he said. 

He then took a job at Brandeis University where he served as assistant director but then was promoted to director of student engagement. 

When the director position opened at Stonehill College, Pagios was interested.

“I wanted a break from my programming board, I felt like I had accomplished a lot during my time with it and the challenge wasn’t there.” 

He still wanted to work with student government and thought he hadn’t had a chance to have an orientation program under him. 

At Stonehill, he would supervise full-time professionals under him and felt that he was able to connect with those in higher positions above him. 

“It is important to not only know your supervisor, but their supervisor,” Pagios said. “The vision of upper leadership trickles down to those below them.”

He began at Stonehill in January 2018, jumping straight into the middle of the school year.

“When you start in January, you are thrown right in and are trying to figure out where you are and how to help the students as well,” he said, “I was kind of thrown into the fire, but that is how I prefer it.”

One of his favorite parts of working in Student Engagement is working with the orientation groups as there are so many different audiences for it. 

He wants to make everyone feel comfortable- from anxious students to parents. He said he feels he makes an impact with first-generation families.

“I want to be able to give them some ease that their child is in good hands. Working with those kinds of families is special in itself,” Pagios said.

Pagios enjoys encouraging students in student government and connecting with them. 

“I love when they realize how much power they actually have and take on challenges to make Stonehill better,” he said. 

Pagios also established a program called the Disney Leadership Experience. The program brings together student leaders to meet each other and learn different techniques for their own leadership styles.

The program allows students to learn directly from the Disney company about what creates a good leader and how to facilitate good leadership. 

The program has been running for three years; however, it is ever-changing. 

“I am never going to be satisfied with what I do, I will always be thinking of how it can be done better,” Pagios said. 

As of 2022, the program is still without a budget, entirely funded by students and their fundraising. Despite this challenge, Pagios believes that it is still a great experience. 

“I understand the power of a student having a significant Disney experience in their resume,” he said. “What we have now is a good combination of social + learning.”