Steve Stephanic

Anyone wanting to speak with “Big Steve” will find him each Saturday morning at Jib Jab on State Street near his home. 

 I recently had the privilege of spending an hour with him there.  Nearly everyone who comes into Jib Jab knows Steve and comes over to say a warm “hello.”    It is almost like he is holding court.  Steve is obviously a very popular figure in Girard.

At GHS Steve was always a commanding figure.  We all, literally all,  looked up to him. 

It is not so much that Steve did not study in high school as it is that he worked after school and on weekends.  There is only so much time in a day and Steve’s grades suffered.  He tells me he graduated in the lower 10% of our graduating class.  In fact, when GHS administered SAT testing for our class, they would not let Steve take the test, saying that he would never go to college anyway, so to take the test would be a waste of resources.

Yet after graduation this same person put himself through YSU and received his Bachelor’s degree, began teaching in the Youngstown School District, went on to get a Masters in Education Administration and a Masters in Civic Administration.  He went part way toward his PHD. 

Eugene Simon put is best when he said,   “At Youngstown University, I used to talk to Steve Stephanic while we were studying in the Library.  He had been told he could not do college work.  When he was tired and wanted to go to sleep, those statements would keep him going a few hours more.  He showed the doubters. He has had a distinguished career and holds two masters degrees.” Gene says, proud of his classmate.

For the past 16 years Steve has headed and still heads a college intervention program at Theil College.  This program is designed to identify inner city high school students who may have a chance at successfully completing 4 years of college.

These Students are selected in the 9th grade and brought into the program.  Each summer they attend a special summer camp at Thiel College in Greenville PA.   Steve overseas this camp and personally chooses the staff who will conduct the workshops.  In the end, successful candidates are elegible for assistance, sometimes including a full scholarship at Thiel or some other universities and colleges who participate in the program. 

"It is very gratifying to know that this program can completely change the lives of those participants for the better," Steve says proudly.

Today Steve is still working.  He has retired from the classroom but was asked by the school system to do some post retirement work as a truant officer.  Steve has spent 42 years with Youngstown Schools.   His recent assignment has taken him from his years in the classroom and into the streets where he tracks down wayward kids and gets them into school.  “I carry mace, a bullet proof vest, a police radio in this new job,” he says. 

One thing is certain.  There are hundreds of inner city students whose lives have been changed for the better due to Steven Stefanic having been a part of their lives.

Like them, Steve was counted out by many.  He overcame the doubters by himself and he has shown the way and helped them find their own path to having a successful life.

Steve has always been a big guy with a warm heart.  I have run into him several times in the past 50 years and he is always interested in what his classmates are doing now.

I am sure I am not alone in being curious about him.  But getting information from Steve has been like pulling teeth.  He is naturally shy, doesn’t own a computer and does not do email.

Personally I think with his Masters in Civic Administration that Steve should run for Mayor of Girard or Girard School Board.  Based on watching him at Jib Jab, he would be a natural.   ----  Ed