For Immediate Release — Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006

Contact:

Mary E. McCrank

Media Relations Officer

(585) 245-5516

mccrank@geneseo.edu

SUNY Geneseo GOLD program receives national award

GENESEO, N.Y. — The Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD) program at the State University of New York at Geneseo recently received a bronze award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) in the category of Student Union, Student Activities, Greek Life and Leadership.

Applications for the NASPA Excellence Awards are judged on a variety of criteria, including positive impact on student learning and/or success, and innovative practical use of research and/or assessment.

Geneseo's GOLD program was selected based on its important role in cocurricular campus life, collaboration with other departments within the college and its accessibility to students.

The program offered 192 workshops in five certificate areas to more than 4,500 students during the 2004-05 academic year. This year, the program offers two new certificates: the Sapphire Volunteerism and Service Leadership Certificate and the Ruby Leadership for the Information Age Certificate.

"A lot of these things are offered on other campuses, but they're not packaged the way that we package them," said Tom Matthews, director of leadership education, development and training for the college.

Matthews began GOLD's Leadership Certificate Program in the fall of 2000 as a new approach to leadership education, with which he had been experimenting for decades. Students obtain gold, silver and bronze certificates by attending one-hour workshops such as "Working with the Brady Bunch: How Birth Order Affects You and Your Organization," "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and an eating etiquette luncheon.

The program also was recognized in 2002 by the National Association for Campus Activities as an Exemplary Practices and Model Program.

The NASPA Excellence Award received by the GOLD program was one of only 21 given to colleges and universities throughout the country for the 2004-05 year.

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