Vinny Costagliola ’16

Creating pathways to healing for veterans

It was during a class trip as a therapeutic recreation major at St. Joseph’s University, New York, when Vinny Costagliola ’16, CTRS, CPT, discovered what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

During his junior year, Lorraine Lubicich, assistant professor of recreation and leisure studies, took her class to the Northport VA Medical Center to learn about the day-to-day responsibilities of a recreation therapist.

“I fell in love with the facilities and knew at some point in my professional career that I wanted to work for the VA and give back to the brave men and women who have served our country,” Mr. Costagliola said.

Since earning a B.S. in Therapeutic Recreation, he has made his dream a reality and now serves as a recreation therapist at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, South Carolina, where he created their recreation therapy program from the ground up.

With the goal of maximizing benefits and opportunities for the veterans he serves, Mr. Costagliola was given the freedom he needed to create the program the way he wanted to.

He hit the ground running, developing informational flyers, PowerPoint presentations and networking with local community businesses. Later, he developed protocols and procedures, met with providers to educate them on what recreation therapy is, and advocated for the benefits of recreation therapy and how it can improve the quality of life for veterans.

“Being able to work with this population, building up their confidence and reintegrating back into the community or helping them explore former and new leisure pursuits, is what I enjoy most about my position,” Mr. Costagliola said.

“It is great to see that no matter what condition or disability they have, they are able to modify the activity to improve their quality of life.”

Now with the program in full swing, Mr. Costagliola spends his days facilitating 1:1 therapy sessions, creating treatment plans and conducting assessments. During the assessment process, he asks specific questions to get to know each veteran while building a rapport to make them feel more comfortable and be able to maximize the benefits of their treatment.

“We walk them through the plan and provide them with support throughout the process,” he said. “Some of the questions that we will ask entail what are some goals that they want to achieve from treatment, and if they have any intrinsic or external factors that will help their motivation.”

Mr. Costagliola credits Professor Lubicich and Gail Lamberta, Ph.D., associate dean for community development, and professor and chair of recreation and leisure studies, with providing the foundation for becoming a successful recreation therapist.

From learning about risk management and how to adapt certain activities to meet the needs of an individual’s disability or condition, he said the main emphasis of all their lessons was to maximize the safety of individuals and how to improve their quality of life.

“Throughout my four years at St. Joseph’s, I cherished the special bonds that I developed with my fellow classmates,” he said. “The smaller class sizes made it more meaningful and allowed us to develop those friendships.”