Medaille College News

Five individuals received awards from Medaille College at the Amherst Accelerated Learning Program Reunion, held at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens on Friday, April 25: Darius Pridgen ‘07 MOL, Dale Stephens ‘99 BA, ‘06 MOL, Barbara Yendall, Stephen Lelinski and Paul Hoffman.

The Community Service Award went to Darius Pridgen ‘07 MOL. Pridgen has served as the pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church since 1994. Under his guidance the church has grown from 25 members to over 3,000 members. He helped to establish the True Community Development Corporation in 2003.

In addition to his work through his church, Pridgen has served on the Buffalo Board of Education and has worked with numerous area non-profit organizations all in an effort to provide enhanced resources for the Buffalo community. Earlier this year he partnered with Medaille to host free informational financial seminars which were held at True Bethel.

Dale Stephens ‘99 BA, ‘06 MOL received the Distinguished Career Award. Stephens is a 28 year employee of the New York State Thruway Authority. After completing his BBA form Medaille in 1999 he was promoted from Regional Training Coordinator to Agency Quality Management Specialist. He completed his Masters in Organizational Leadership in 2006 and was promoted to Senior Personal Administrator.

In January 2008, Stephens and two of his classmates established a consulting business based on the concepts they learned in the MOL program. In addition, his consulting group is in the process of establishing a Medaille scholarship fund in which they will donate a percentage of their profits to future /current Medaille students.

For the Faculty/Staff Award, Barbara Yendall, curriculum coordinator at the Amherst Campus, was honored.

Yendall’s nomination notes that “if you ask any of the faculty, they would tell you of Barb’s incredible commitment to excellence, customer service and learning.” As Curriculum Coordinator since 2002, she coordinates the ordering and inventory of the texts and other materials, reviews the curriculum to ensure it is current, that the course objectives are being met and that the student opinion survey results are considered. She works with faculty to update and revise the curriculum and edits the revisions to the course blueprints.

Two community members were selected for Honorary Alumni Awards: Stephen Lelinski of Key Bank and Paul Hoffman of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Stephen Lelinski and Paul Hoffman have become fixtures as guest speakers since the first night of MBA 660 – Integrated Research Project. Lelinski is a Vice President at Key Bank and Hoffman is a lending relations specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration and, together, have provided valuable, expert advice to students on what it takes to get a loan from a bank and how the Small Business Administration may help and support this process. These presentations give students a great background in the lending process and let them know what they should expect when they go to a bank to seek capital for their business.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.