The Office of Student Success and Development is here for you from the moment you register for your first class until you receive your diploma. When you get accepted, you are paired with a coordinator who can assist you with overcoming personal barriers or just answering your questions. We often help students with navigating SUNY Empire systems and procedures, getting connected to resources, and understanding how to work best with their mentor. We offer workshops throughout every term, which you can learn more about on our website. In addition to our coordinators, we want you to get to know some of our “behind the scenes” team members who keep our office running smoothly. Some of these staff members you may speak with once for assistance, or you may work with them often and maybe you don’t even realize it! Hopefully getting to know our staff in this way will make you feel more comfortable reaching out to us for assistance! 

 

  Meet Van White, CRM Administrator

Please provide some background information about yourself.  

I’ve been working in higher ed. now for almost 10 years and have had the opportunities to work in varying roles such as being an advisor, academic evaluator, and instructional support assistant.  Within the last couple years, my main focus has been working with educational technologies like the LMS or CRM systems.  I’m a 518 native and grew up in the surrounding Saratoga area.  I’m a huge college basketball fan (GO HUSKIES!) and you can find me rooting for the NY Giants during football season.     
 

How long have you been working here? 

I joined SUNY Empire in June of last year, so I’ve been here almost 8 months!  Time sure flies and I’ve learned so much already in that small span of time. 
 

Where are you located? 

My office is located at the 111 West Ave location in Saratoga Springs. 
 

What’s your favorite part of your job? 

This is tough, but I would have to say I really enjoy the technology aspect.  I work on trying to automate and streamline our processes that are in the CRM system.  CRM stands for customer-relationship management.  It can be challenging at times, but it is very rewarding to see how my work impacts the goals and initiatives of our team and the college as a whole.    
 

If you were a potato, how would you like to be cooked? 

This is easy – fried, as in French fry. 
 

What is a fun fact you’d like to share? 

I love doing karaoke and some people after learning that may ask what my ‘go-to' karaoke song is, and there’s a good chance it’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ by Bonnie Tyler.  
 

What is a piece of advice that you would share with a student?  

The best piece of advice that I would give to a student would be to identify your support network.  Is it a spouse, a friend, a relative, a co-worker? Tell someone you’re in school and what you’re working on.  Support makes all the difference when encountering challenges or obstacles and it’s a great motivator to have people in your corner cheering for you.  Earning any degree is a huge accomplishment that deserves to be recognized.