Medaille College News

On Friday, May 7, 2010, ten of the world‘s best leaders will speak about the leadership principles that matter most at the Be the One Leadercast.  Medaille will host this full-day leadership event at each of its campuses in Buffalo, Amherst and Rochester.

The video conference event features Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, Ed Bastian, president of Delta Air Lines,  Tony Dungy, retired head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, and other corporate and industry leaders.

Limited ticket quantities are available; please register early to guarantee a ticket at your preferred location. Tickets are on sale until March 31, 2010 at an early-bird rate of $50. Tickets purchased after March 31 are $60. All registrations include lunch, snack breaks, and a post-event networking reception.

Medaille College has announced six finalists for the Father Medaille Awards for Citizenship and Service. The winners in the three categories will be revealed on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at the Founders’ Day Celebration, presented by Medaille College and Phillips Lytle LLP at Medaille’s Buffalo Campus.

In late February, the Founders’ Day Selection Committee met to evaluate dozens of nominations for organizations, individuals, and Medaille alumni who contribute to the advancement of their communities. Committee members include: Eileen Buckley, news producer at WBFO and a Medaille graduate; Jack Connors, president of Business First of Buffalo; Sharon Hanson, manager of public and governmental affairs at Time Warner Cable; Dr. Richard T. Jurasek, president of Medaille College; Kenneth Manning, partner at Phillips Lytle LLP; Timm J. Otterson, DVM, associate veterinarian at Summer Street Cat Clinic; and, Earl V. Wells III, president of e3communications.

Adoption STAR and Harvest House of Buffalo were selected as the organization finalists, and the winner will receive a $5,000 award for use in their work in the community.

Winners in the individual and alumni categories will receive a $1,000 award to continue their work. Individual finalists are Robert F. Moss, for his work with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Erie County, and Dr. Michael Cropp, for his efforts at the Olmsted Center for Sight. Medaille graduates Henri L. Muhammad and John Trojanowsky are finalists in the alumni category. Muhammad’s nomination focused on his work in establishing and building the Muhammad School of Music, and Trojanowsky was nominated for his role with the Lancaster Youth Bureau.

A full list of nominated organizations, individuals and alumni is available on the Medaille College Founders’ Day Celebration web site.

After a career as an organizational development manager, Pat Seischab embarked on a new challenge: teaching adult students at Medaille’s Rochester Campus. “After 25 years of corporate work and consulting experiences, I developed insights in change management, process improvement, leadership and adult learning that I now bring to the classroom,” Seischab says.

From her organizational development background, Seischab offers, “I know you must accept people where they are and not where you would like them to be.” Bringing that concept into the courses she teaches in Rochester many evenings, she regularly customizes class activities to the learning needs of students, working to maintain academic standards and to meet individual learning needs.

In the past, prospective students have asked Seischab, “Why should I go back to school to get a degree?” Her answer is simple, and informed by her own experience. “To anyone considering going back to school, I say ‘do it!’ I was 39 when I went to graduate school, and I always tell students how much easier it is to return to school as an adult now than it was years ago.” Adult students who have looked at other colleges in the Rochester area may think there are no other options besides the traditional college experience of a campus with lots of buildings, daytime classes, and activities that are designed to appeal to the typical 18-year-old freshman.

According to Seischab, “Most students don’t realize the types of accommodations made by Medaille for non-traditional students returning for a degree.” The path to a degree begins with a personalized admissions and registration process, where student services staff assist with financial aid and course registration. From there, classes are held in a cohort structure, meaning that students travel with the same group of classmates for each class. With evening classes and coursework that can be immediately applied to one’s own work, students do not have to wait to complete the degree before seeing direct benefits to their professional career.

Bringing leadership insights to the classroom“Medaille students share a strong desire to make a better life, and that’s why our faculty works so well with our students,” Seischab says. “We are highly motivated to use our knowledge to help our students get ahead.”
She continues: “Medaille students leave with self-confidence in their ability to achieve, and that self-confidence fuels a positive attitude. A positive attitude, self-confidence and a degree in business are a powerful combination.”

The Rochester Campus has been closed on Friday, February 26 due to severe weather conditions. The campus and library will be open on Saturday, February 27, and classes are expected to resume on Monday. Please check back on Medaille’s web sites for continuing information, and remember to keep your contact information updated through Medaille’s emergency notification system [ID number and official Medaille email address required].

Dorthea King-Simpson, the director of family child care at the Rochester Childfirst Network, made the choice to advance her education at Medaille College in Rochester. “When I moved from Utica, NY to Rochester in 2004, Rochester’s unemployment pool was saturated with highly-educated individuals,” she says. “I knew that I needed to go back to school to remain competitive.”

Two years after graduating from Medaille College with a master’s in organizational leadership, King-Simpson offers that her choice was the right one. “My organizational leadership degree is paying me back exponentially. Every day, on the job, I work to show the staff at Rochester Childfirst Network that they, and their contributions to the agency, are valued – that they are paramount to our success,” she explains. “Medaille taught me how to build trust with, invest in, and to earnestly praise those with whom I work.”

For King-Simpson, the design of Medaille’s Accelerated Learning Program was a major factor in her selection of a Rochester-area business program. “Without Medaille’s accelerated program, flexible schedule, and convenient location to where I live and work, I would not have been able to make the necessary commitments for my personal development,” she says. “My Medaille degree has without a doubt, increased my value as a member of the leadership team in our organization.”

With two master’s degrees and multiple professional certifications, Fernan R. Cepero has clocked many hours seated in a desk as a student. As an instructor of business courses for Medaille’s Accelerated Learning Program in Rochester, Cepero takes his role as a teacher quite seriously.

“Learning is bridge building, where unfamiliar content is made more meaningful by bridging from what is known to what is unknown,” he explains. “Adult learners actively construct their own understanding – they are not passive recipients of information.”

“I guide learning [in my classroom] by helping students individually, at other times instructing an entire class, and still at other times by encouraging class participation,” continues Cepero. “Spontaneity is a valued part of teaching, and if the teaching appears memorized, not spoken with eye contact, and if there are no visual aids, learning will likely not take place. Students also learn better if they know the immediate results of their work; therefore, I evaluate work and return it by next class time.”

Many students enter the business degree programs at Medaille with clear goals: to advance to a new position, to finish a degree they may have started years ago, or for the sake of building their knowledge to work more effectively in their current career. Thinking of the goals that he has for his students, Cepero states, “I want my students to learn to think critically and to become skillful listeners. Students learn the skills required to manage people, plans and projects in my class by immediate application of theory to their real world of work scenarios.”

With his animated classroom manner, Cepero consistently encourages students to voice their ideas about subject matter and to ask questions. “This type of classroom climate melts icy inhibitions toward attentiveness and participation. Learning involves active thinking,” he says.

Currently working as vice president of human resources for the YMCA of Greater Rochester, Cepero held previous positions at The Perrier Group of America and Xerox. He is immediate past president of the Genesee Valley Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (GVCSHRM) and currently serves as treasurer of the New York State Society of Human Resource Management and treasurer of Monroe JSEC. He is a member of the boards of the Ibero-American Action League, the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School, and the Center for Disability Rights and is an active member of the Senior Human Resource Executive Forum of the Rochester Business Alliance.

Please be advised that there was a misprint on the original Academic Calendar for the Full Semester Evening (FSE) Classes in regards to the dates of Spring Break.

The original calendar indicated the FSE Spring Break begins at 5pm on March 12, 2010 with classes resuming on March 22, 2010. Upon further review of the calendar, we have adjusted the dates to coincide with the Full Semester Day classes. In doing this, it also aligns the calendar to coincide with the break between Session 3 & Session 4 classes (which normally pertains to graduate students).

Therefore, the Spring Break for FSE classes will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 5, 2010. Classes will resume at 8 a.m. on Monday, March 15, 2010.

To facilitate the distribution of this information, we have also asked that instructors reiterate this notification in class this week along with e-mail notifications college-wide. Please contact the Registrar’s Office at (716) 880-2365 for further information, questions, or concerns.

Representatives from WNYHeroes meet at Medaille's Amherst Campus to pick up toys for WNY military families

WNY Heroes, Inc. and Medaille College teamed up in December to collect and deliver toys to local veterans and their families. On December 18, 2009, representatives from WNY Heroes, Inc. arrived at the Medaille College Amherst Campus to pick up boxes of children’s toys, collected over several weeks by faculty, staff and students.

Judith M. Horowitz, Associate Vice President and Dean for Medaille’s School of Adult and Graduate Education, organized the event within Medaille’s Amherst and Rochester Campuses. Dr. Horowitz says, “Some of our Amherst classes are having ‘competitions’ with each other to see who can bring the best presents; faculty and staff have been contributing as well. I’m incredibly proud of how generous our students and my colleagues have been.” Medaille also worked with several Rochester- and Buffalo-based businesses to collect toys for the drive. Pictures are available on Flickr.com.

WNY Heroes, Inc. will deliver the toys to the homes of local veterans and military personnel just in time to bring smiles for the holidays. WNY Heroes is a nonprofit formed to assist local veterans and military personnel. For additional information, please see their website at www.wnyheroes.org.

With the holiday season approaching, the Campus Safety Office has compiled a list of safety tips for students, faculty, and visitors to Medaille’s campuses in Buffalo, Amherst and Rochester. Please review the list at the Campus Safety web page.

Following two months of planning and construction, Medaille College’s Rochester Campus will officially open its doors at its new location on Monday, June 29, 2009. (pictures)

Located at 1880 South Winton Road, the new campus contains nine classrooms, each with a capacity of 24 students, and each with its own technology package. A 700-square foot library includes computer workstations, and a multi-purpose room provides space for meetings and workshops of up to 60 people.

“Medaille’s relocation to the Town of Brighton is a reinvestment in the campus and an investment that will contribute to economic growth in the Rochester region,” says Richard T. Jurasek, Ph.D., Medaille College president. “We’re developing new degrees with the needs of adult students in mind, and this larger facility will support those expanded programs and larger student base.”

“Like our current site, the Brighton location will be close to Rochester’s Outer Loop (Rte. 390/590), keeping it convenient for current and future students who travel to class after work,” adds Dr. Jenifer Bavifard, executive director for the Accelerated Learning Program. “The design of each classroom and inclusion of technology will give faculty more options when developing lessons and will be planned to accommodate adult learners.”

Since Medaille College opened its Rochester Campus in 2002, nearly 400 graduates have received associate, bachelor’s or master’s degrees in business through the Accelerated Learning Program. These degrees are designed to allow adult students to complete a degree through a flexible, interactive and cohort-based structure.