Amy Giaculli Receives Excellence in Professional Service Award

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - April 25, 2017) Amy Giaculli, a retention services specialist in SUNY Empire State College’s Office of Enrollment Management, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has received the Empire State College Foundation Award for Excellence in Professional Service at the All College Conference.

“I am humbled and honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Giaculli. “Thank you to everyone in the college community for your support over the years.”

“I congratulate Amy Giaculli for winning the foundation Award for Excellence in Professional Service,” said Merodie A. Hancock, president of the college. “The large number of candidates, the rigorous selection process and the high standards and accomplishments recipients must achieve is very impressive. These are people who best represent aspirations of the college community. They have contributed their talents, passions and often their entire careers to their colleagues, to higher education and adult learning and, most importantly, to the overall success of the college and its students. Amy is an outstanding member of our staff and is an inspiration to all of us.”

Giaculli has been with the college for eight years and a little longer than one year in her current position. She was lauded by colleagues for her motivation, knowledge and experience, especially in team building, project management and using technology. According to David Caso, director of retention services, “As the online student population grew, Amy was adaptable. This required a different approach and effort toward resolution, retention and student development.” Giaculli was also instrumental in developing a consistent orientation presentation for newly enrolled students. “Her experience working with technology gave her a unique perspective on how to make the content more engaging,” Caso noted.

Besides her regular workload, Giaculli was selected by the Offices of the Registrar and Academic Affairs to serve on the Student Academic Progress (SAP) and GPA Determination and Notification Dates Committee. That committee was tasked to research and create a proposal to change the college’s academic standing process, which involved researching peer intuitions for feedback on best practices. The committee’s work was approved by the Provost Council.

Giaculli served as a liaison between faculty, the instructional designer and video producer on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) where she brought her exceptional organizational skills to the task.

About the Excellence Award in Professional Service Award

The criteria for selection for the Foundation Award for Excellence in Professional Service speaks to superbly fulfilling the responsibilities of the position, demonstrating initiative and strong leadership skills and providing excellence in decision making, as well as problem solving.

About SUNY Empire State College

Empire State College, the nontraditional, open college of the SUNY system yearly, educates nearly 19,000 students worldwide at eight international sites, more than 30 locations across the state of New York, online, as well as face to face and through a blend of both, at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels.

The average age of an undergraduate student at the college is 35 and graduate students’ average age is 40.

Most Empire State College students are working adults. Many are raising families and meeting civic commitments in the communities where they live, while studying part time.

In addition to awarding credit for prior college-level learning, the college pairs each undergraduate student with a faculty mentor who supports that student throughout his or her college career.

Working with their mentors, students design an individual degree program and engage in guided independent study and coursework on site, online or through a combination of both, which provides the flexibility for students to choose where, when and how to learn.

Students have the opportunity to enroll five times during the year.

The college’s 78,000 alumni are active in their communities as entrepreneurs, politicians, business professionals, artists, nonprofit agency employees, teachers, veterans and active military, union members and more

The college was first established in 1971 by the SUNY Board of Trustees with the encouragement of the late Ernest L. Boyer, chancellor of the SUNY system from 1970 to 1977. Boyer also served as United States commissioner of education during the administration of President Jimmy Carter and then as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

More information about the college is available at www.esc.edu

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Media contact: David Henahan, director of communications, SUNY Empire State College

David.Henahan@esc.edu

518-587-2100, ext. 2918

518-321-7038, cell