Thursday, June 26, 2008

Director of WVCR Inducted into Hall of Fame


Legendary Capital Region radio executive and Siena Director John Kelly was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame on June 24th during a ceremony at the Sagamore Hotel in Lake George, the site of the association’s annual conference.
Kelly guided three different radio stations to number one positions in three different decades, with three different owners. The 1997 NYSBA “Broadcaster of the Year,” Kelly modestly explains his success this way: “I never knew much about anything. I just hired good people and got out of their way.”
Kelly called the induction a great honor and thanked his “two families” for sharing the award with him. Kelly’s children and grandchildren attended. Also attending was Kelly’s “Siena family.” Since retiring in 2002, Kelly has served as Director of Siena’s radio station, WVCR.

When Albany auto dealership giant Jim Morrell decided to get into radio, he chose Kelly to lead the way. Two stations were purchased in 1986. When Kelly retired in 2002, the group had 28 stations.

The Chairman of the Hall of Fame selection committee, Galaxy group owner Ed Levine worked for Kelly at Albany radio station, WPYX. “Anybody can get lucky once. John Kelly had numerous successes over a number of years all in one market. That separates him from the rest.” Levine says Kelly was a tough task masker with remarkable intuition. “He always knew the right questions to ask and had a tremendous BS detector.”

NYSBA President Joe Reilly is a dear friend who has known Kelly for 40 years. “John let his people take chances that most managers wouldn’t,” Reilly said. In addition, “John had a great eye for talent.” Kelly takes great pleasure in seeing talent go on to achieve enormous success.
Popular NY City morning show co-host (WPLJ) Todd Pettengill has been Billboard Magazine's "Air Personality of the Year" five times. He worked for Kelly in Albany. Pettengill calls him “the best GM I ever worked for, bar none.” He said Kelly’s “even temperament” was a great help when he was trying to manage multiple stations in a turbulent industry.

Born in Poughkeepsie into very modest means, Kelly spent many summers as a youth on a farm doing chores from dawn to dusk. He earned a business degree at SUNY- Farmingdale on Long Island.

As for advice for those with great aspirations, Kelly says simply, “Dare to be different. Why does every resume look alike? Be willing to think outside the box and take risks.”

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Remembering Tim Russert

Siena College is saddened to have learned of the death of Tim Russert. Russert delivered the baccalaureate address to Siena's Class of 2005 and despite only being on campus for a few hours, he left a lasting impression with our community.


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Monday, June 16, 2008

Junior Earns MAAC Sportsmanship Award, Advances to NCAA Ballot

Courtesy of Jason Rich, Athletics Office

LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. – Siena College junior outfielder Nick Messinger (Norton, Mass./Bishop Feehan) has been nominated for the 2008 NCAA Sportsmanship Awards, according to a release furnished by the MAAC office. Messinger was chosen by the league after each member institution submitted a nomination. The award honors student-athletes who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior.
Messinger advances to the national Division I ballot which includes one male and one female representative from each of the NCAA’s 31 conferences. The NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct will make the final selection, first limiting the pool to one male and one female student-athlete from each of the three NCAA divisions (six total) and then selecting one male and one female from those six finalists as the NCAA Sportsmanship Award winners.
Messinger has demonstrated superlative sportsmanship and ethical behavior throughout his playing career at Siena, following closely the ideals of Siena’s founding Franciscan Tradition. Messinger was a Second Team All-MAAC selection this past season as a junior outfielder for the Saints, batting .319 with four home runs, 34 RBI and 38 runs scored. He was one of only two players to appear in all 56 games for a Siena team that reached the MAAC Championship Game. Academically, he posted a 3.2 GPA during the 2007-2008 academic year as a sociology major.
Messinger’s sportsmanship is on display on a daily basis. He exhibits great respect for his teammates, coaching staff and competition. He has taken the lead role in assuring that the game is played with integrity and compassion.
Additionally, Messinger has fostered a relationship with recent Siena alumnus Michael Potter who is wheelchair bound with Cerebral Palsy. He makes sure that Potter has a way to attend each game, and that a place is set aside for him next to the Siena dugout. Prior to many at bats, Messinger talks with Potter and lets him know how much it means to him that he is at the game. The relationship extends off the field, as Messinger regularly visits Potter in his Ballston Spa home.
Messinger’s genuine care and civility toward Potter is reflected in his actions on the playing field. He always encourages his teammates to understand how fortunate they are to be playing a game they love and to keep their priorities in order. Many of his teammates have embraced this philosophy and followed his quiet, but powerful example. They recently named him captain for the 2009 season.
The expectations Messinger sets for himself far extend success on the diamond, as he realizes the true meaning of the term student-athlete and is committed to playing out his collegiate career as the best possible person he can be.
In addition to his relationship with Potter, which has helped add an outlet and a sense of belonging to his wheelchair bound friend, Messinger is one of Siena’s most active student-athletes in terms of community service. Messinger’s volunteerism began when he earned the distinction of Eagle Scout for the Boy Scouts of America in 2003 – an organization he remains actively involved with to this day.
In his Norton, Mass. community, Messinger served three years as a Big Brother at his high school Bishop Feehan, while also working for Bishop Feehan Peer Ministry and as a sport camp counselor (basketball, baseball and football). Messinger has volunteered many hours through his local church, serving on the Christian Life Community Youth Group and as a Eucharistic Minister assistant. For the past five years he has been a volunteer and organizer for the Sarah Pellon/Paula Q. Smith Memorial Scholarship Road Race.
At Siena, Messinger’s community outreach projects have expanded to include the athletic department’s Saints in the Community program, where he has played a lead role. Through Saints in the Community, Messinger is a regular volunteer for the St. Casmir Wednesday program, serving as a physical education instructor with other student-athletes for the students of the Arbor Hill Elementary school who come on campus because their school does not have a gymnasium. Messinger has also worked with his teammates for the Ronald McDonald House Charities, preparing a meal for the families of hospital-bound children and visiting the Family Room at Albany Medical Center.
It is the second straight year Siena has received the MAAC’s male sportsmanship nomination. Last year, soccer midfielder Liam Welsh ’08 was the nominee.

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2008 Luce Scholars

Sarah Amie:
· Major: Biochemistry
· GPA: 3.93 overall
· Reason for Attending Siena College: She chose to attend Siena because of its small size and well known science program.
· Extra Curricular: Siena Dance Team, Habitat for Humanity
· Research: Worked on the Green Chemistry Biodiesel Project with Dr. Todaro during her sophomore year. This summer, she will be participating in research on cell signaling with Dr. Sterne-Marr.
· Future plans: She plans on going to graduate school to get her PhD and hopes to have a career in research.

Janelle Rizzo:
· Major: Computer Science
· GPA: 3.79 overall
· Reason for Attending Siena College: She heard that Siena was a good school and close to home. Since Janelle was unsure of a major, she determined that a liberal arts school would be a good place to explore her options. It was during her freshman year that she took a computer science course and discovered her calling.
· Extra Curricular: Siena Pep Band, Relay for Life, ACM Women in Computing Club
· Research: Still exploring the different areas of Computer Science.
· Future plans: She plans on going to graduate school to get more experience in computer science. Currently interested in studying computer security and/or forensics.Type your summary here


About the Clare Booth Luce Scholarship Program: This scholarship generously funds two junior and two senior women pursuing degrees in bio-chemistry, chemistry, computer science, math or physics. It provides funding for tuition, research projects and faculty mentoring for their junior and senior years. The scholarship provides nearly a full scholarship for these students.

Our 2 returning scholarship winners:

Patricia Carroll:
· Major: Physics with minors in chemistry and math
· GPA: 4.0
· Reason for Attending Siena College: The main reason I chose Siena was because it was a great school where I could also play D1 soccer. I like that it's a small campus, very friendly, and not too far from home. It’s competitive both academically and athletically.
· Extra Curricular: Siena Women's Soccer, Physics Club and Sigma Pi Sigma member.
· REUS:
· Summer 2007: Project in astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. The following information is copied from their website:
Studying Galaxies with COSMOS Advisors: Dr. Charles Liu COSMOS is a major Hubble Space Telescope survey with a massive international multiwavelength followup effort that, when completed, will be applied to a wide variety of astronomical questions. One preliminary study to be conducted, using the first portions of the COSMOS data, will be to identify the strongly star-forming galaxies in the survey and measure their luminosities, positions, and spatial distributions. The eventual goal of such a study would be to measure and understand the changes that have occurred in the field galaxy population as a function of cosmic time.

· Summer 2008: Accepted to NASA USRP program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. During recent years, both Jupiter and Saturn have been exhibiting interesting atmospheric changes and the ring system of Saturn is closing, thereby providing unique geometry for observations. My project will involve studying these changes using ground-based observations and other pertinent data resident in the Planetary Data System (PDS).
· Future plans: I plan to go to graduate school to pursue my PhD in Astrophysics.

Christina Sillery:
· Major: Computer Science and Biology
· GPA: 3.54 overall
· Reason for Attending Siena College: Siena is a small school with a great sense of community and service along with a strong science program. They encourage Franciscan values along with success through a well rounded, liberal arts education.
· Extra Curricular: Habitat for Humanity, Campus Ministry, Siena College Ambassador, Pep-band, Outing Club
· REU: MedIX: Medical Informatics Research Experience for Undergraduates Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation at Depaul University and Northwestern University. The following information is copied from their website:
"The REU site is in the area of Medical Informatics and will address issues related to the workflow driven acquisition of image data in an electronic medical record environment, and the subsequent post-processing of the image information to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the consumers of this information, notably radiologists. In particular, segmentation, texture analysis, classification and annotation of computed tomography (CT) images using computer vision and data mining techniques will be emphasized. "
· Future plans: As for my future, I aspire to extend my knowledge as far as possible, throughout graduate school and work towards a career involved with bioinformatics. In order to promote the advantages of modern medicine, I am aiming for a career that involves both the technological and medical fields. I hope to further my education both at Siena College and in the future in graduate school.

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Monday, June 9, 2008

Alumni Receive Awards During Alumni Weekend 2008

William P. McGoldrick ’68
The Reverend Benjamin Kuhn, O.F.M. Award for specific contributions to improve the Siena Community
James A. Donsbach ’68
The Reverend Benjamin Kuhn, O.F.M., Award for specific contributions to improve the Siena Community
Robert L. Guido ’68
The Professor Joseph A. Buff Award for outstanding career accomplishments or achievements
John J. Breyo ’68
The Professor Joseph A. Buff Award for outstanding career accomplishments or achievements
Robert J. Edwards ’73 & Ralph C. Giuliano ’73

The Professor Egon Plager Award for accomplishments in advancing the welfare of other human beings

Please click below for detailed biographies for our 2008 distinguished alumni:

Bill McGoldrick- During his 37 year career in educational advancement, Bill has built a reputation as a successful professional and an outstanding teacher, speaker and consultant. His skills, experience and passion for education led him to join Sue Washburn to establish Washburn & McGoldrick, Inc. in 1995, an international consulting firm dedicated to educational institutions.

Bill served Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as director of development for five years and as vice president for eleven years leading the alumni relations, communications and development programs, and two campaigns that secured more than $260 million. He also served as a major gift director in a $20 million campaign at The College of William and Mary.

He has been active with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and served on the CASE Board of Trustees. Bill has been a faculty member at many CASE sponsored programs and was a featured speaker at the AGB National Conference on Trusteeship. He has spoken at international conferences on fund raising and campaign management in the United Kingdom and Australia and has authored chapters in three books related to development and campaigning. In 1990, CASE Middle Atlantic District presented him with its Professional of the Year Award. In 1993, the Hudson-Mohawk Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives named him its Fund Raising Executive of Distinction.

Bill earned a bachelor's degree in English from Siena College and holds a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University. He served two years as Public Affairs Officer in the United States Navy.

He is active as a board member for various community organizations including serving two terms as a member of the Board of Directors of the Siena College Alumni Association and is currently a member of Siena College’s Board of Associate Trustees.

Bill is not only a great volunteer but a generous donor as well. In addition to being Annual Fund President’s Circle Member and Saints Alive! Boosters, Bill and his wife Betsi have made substantial gifts to several restricted projects at Siena. They established the M. Margaret McGoldrick Scholarship for students who are active community members and have financial need in honor of Bill’s mother. They supported the building of the Sarazen Student Union, Standish Library and renovations of Siena Hall. Bill has been a leader among the Class of 1968 for their class endowment fund.

Jim Donsbach- The Donsbach name is synonymous with Siena College. Jim has been part of the Siena Community for the better part of his lifetime. His dad was the legendary accounting professor, Carl Donsbach, who taught at Siena for over 30 years before passing away in 2000.

Beyond the family ties, Jim has been a dedicated Siena volunteer. He has served as an officer in the Capital District Alumni Chapter, a volunteer for the Annual Fund, which he chaired for two years, a panelist at student orientation events, a sponsor of Festa Vino and a member of his class reunion gift committee. Jim also established an endowment fund for a series of annual accounting lectures in memory of his father.

After earning his undergraduate degree in business from Siena in 1968, Jim completed a graduate degree in higher education from SUNY Albany. His career spans of over thirty-five years in higher education and he currently manages a program office for the office of higher education at the New York State Education Department.

Jim celebrated his 40th class reunion this summer and looks forward to continuing the family legacy at Siena College.

Bob Guido, retired Vice-Chair of Ernst & Young LLP, was responsible for the firm’s Assurance and Advisory Practices. Bob was a member of the firm’s Americas Executive Board, which is composed of partners responsible for the leadership and direction of the firm. Bob has been a speaker at many Directors Institutes and forums on Corporate Governance (including the FORTUNE Boardroom Forums).
Bob served as the coordinating partner on some of E&Y’s largest global clients in many industries (and countries), including manufacturing, consumer products and energy. Bob also co-chaired E&Y’s Global Client Steering Committee, which is represented by some of the firm’s most senior. Bob has been involved in the development and improvement of accounting and audit methodologies since he joined E&Y in 1968.
Bob graduated with a B.B.A. from Siena College and a M.B.A. from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western University. In addition to holding a Certified Public Accountant certificate (CPA), he also holds a Certified Management Accountant certificate (CMA).
While based in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob was active in many organizations – including serving as President of The Zoological Society, Treasurer of Cleveland Scholarship Inc., Boys & Girls Club, United Way, Leadership Cleveland, and chair of the Accounting Advisory Board at Case Western University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Since his 1997 transfer to Georgia, Bob joined Emory University’s Goizueta Business School Advisory Board, assisted the Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta with their Capital Campaign, served on the Governor’s Business Advisory Board, and served as a volunteer at the East Lake Golf Club in connection with the PGA’s Tour Championship Event.
Presently, Bob remains active on the Business Advisory Board at Emory University, on the Board of Cleveland Scholarship, Inc., and involved at East Lake with the Tour Championship.
In May 2007, Bob was appointed to the Siena College Board of Trustees – serving on the Executive and Audit Committees (Chairing Audit), as well as the College Athletics Committee.

John Breyo- John is a native of Schenectady, N.Y., and an honors graduate of Linton High School, Siena College and Albany Law School, where he graduated 12th in his class. John was admitted to the New York State Bar in June of 1972. In 1971, he joined The Ayco Corporation. Founded on the belief that the tax code was becoming too complex for even the most knowledgeable of corporate executives, Ayco quickly gained a reputation for professionalism and competence. Ayco now provides financial planning services to executives of Fortune 500 companies, among many other services.

As the founder of Ayco’s tax practice, its Encompass consulting practice, Ayco Asset Management, Ayco University and many other innovations, John has played a pivotal role in the growth of Ayco’s success. In 1986, he was named to the office of the president. In 1994, under John’s leadership, the company underwent a management buyout, at which time he became President of The Ayco Company, L.P., and a major shareholder. In June 1997, John became chairman and chief executive officer and president of the parent company and all its subsidiaries and general partner of all its partnerships. He was instrumental in the July 1, 2003, sale of The Ayco Company, L.P., to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

When Goldman, Sachs & Co. acquired The Ayco Company, L.P., John was named a Managing Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co., as well as chief executive officer of The Ayco Company, L.P.

He has sat on the board of trustees of Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Albany Law School, Greenwich Street Capital Partners I and Greenwich Street Capital Partners II. He was named the 1999 recipient of the William Golub Tikkun Olam Award for his humanitarian endeavors by the United Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York. In 2002 he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Siena College.

John retired in November 2006 from The Ayco Company, L.P., but remains under contract to Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Robert J. Edwards & Ralph C. Giuliano - During the 1991 Alumni Reunion Weekend, where Dr. Jerry Hough was honored with the Dr. Egon Plager Award for Humanitarian Effort and ran into his classmate Dr. Robert Edwards ’73, a dentist from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. “Jerry told me about his experience helping children in La Victoria (Dominican Republic) and it interested me. I have always wanted to get involved in this type of work,” Edwards said.

Dr. Edwards joined Dr. Hough and a few years later he recruited his classmate, Dr. Ralph Giuliano ’73, a dentist in Southbury, CT to join the team’s efforts. Upon Dr. Edwards’ arrival he discovered sparse and outdated dental equipment and they were desperately low on supplies . They were hindered with a lack of refrigeration, and dental instruments were being washed by hand in basins filled with local contaminated water. Electricity wasn’t guaranteed everyday either.

Edwards and Giuliano spent most of their days treating children at a clinic pre-school and educating Dominican dentists on new procedures. “We noticed a lot of dental decay in the children down there due to their habits of chewing and brushing their teeth with sugar cane,” Edwards said. They also conducted inventories that would allocate future funds and supplies. “You realize how much easier it is to practice in the United States,” Dr. Edwards said. “Working under these conditions you get a real feeling of accomplishment, and it makes you want to contribute a little more.”

Over the last two decades, these Siena alumni have volunteered one week per year as they installed back up power generators, helped build an outpatient hospital, donated dental chairs and medical supplies, and used the week to catch up with each other.

“There are a lot of people working to make the town of La Victoria a better place. It isn’t a big deal in our minds,” Edwards said. “This isn’t something that becomes difficult over time. You develop relationships with the people and look forward to returning every year.”

In 2001, the Siena graduates, along with numerous other volunteers from the United States, helped put the finishing touches on a new outpatient hospital. Included in the hospital was a dental clinic. “Our goal was to be able to get this place to be self-sustaining,” Giuliano said. “We wanted to do what we thought was best for these people.” Today the hospital has two full-time dentists who serve the 500 children of La Victoria. The dental clinic cleans the children’s teeth for free, courtesy of Dr. Hough’s parish. Now that the clinic at La Victoria is self-sustaining, the Siena trio is considering a new location to help the less fortunate. “The world is our community,” Giuliano said. “As human beings, we have a responsibility to this community.

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Friday, June 6, 2008

Group Restores Jewish Cemetery in Belarus

Fifteen students and four Siena professors unearthed 300 toppled gravestones at the Rubiazhevichi cemetery, located in a small Belarusian village about 45 minutes southwest of Minsk. They also rebuilt the entrance to the cemetery with the help of local residents.
The group, none of whom are Jewish, paid their own way to do this service work. A Siena group restored a cemetery in Vselyub, Belarus in 2006.
During the World War II, the Nazis used Jewish gravestones to pace their way to the Eastern front. Most Jewish families, deported to concentration camps, lost their lives. The burial grounds of their ancestors are now in danger of disappearing from the historical record.
Photo from JTA.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Alumni to Endow Siena Mentoring Program

A group of Siena College graduates have raised almost $300,000 so far to establish a high school mentoring program and scholarship program.

The Class of 1968 High School Mentoring Endowment will be announced at this weekend's alumni events. Many of the Siena grads were mentors during their college years. Others came from underprivileged roots, but succeeded because Siena cared for them. They have a desire to give back and this project speaks to the Franciscan values that inspire them.

The new high school program builds on a successful elementary program begun 44 years ago by Jim Snyder at Siena College. More than 2,200 young girls and boys, most from Albany, have been mentored by a similar number of college students. Each Saturday during the school year, 110 children come to Siena to do activities with their mentors. A 6-week summer camp at Siena serves many of the same children. The Class of ’68 mentoring endowment will enable more of these children to continue their relationship with Siena through high school and hopefully college.

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