HAMBURG, N.Y. – Hilbert College student Emily Pawelski has been selected to be one of ten recipients of a 2017 Independent Sector Student Community Service Award and a $500 H.D. Paley Scholarship from the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU).
This award honors outstanding Independent Sector TAP students for their leadership in community service throughout New York State. The award is highly competitive as there are more than 100 colleges and universities in New York’s independent sector. Emily and the other recipients will be honored during the 2017 CICU Annual Meeting Reception on March 6 in Albany, NY.
Emily has served, for the past two summers, as a volunteer counselor at Camp Good Days & Special Times, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and families whose lives have been touched by cancer. Combined with her five years as a junior helper in her middle school and high school years, Emily has been assisting this organization for seven years. Along with the summer program, Emily assists with Camp Good Days & Special Times “off-season” programs for families, including pumpkin carving and mini-golf. Emily also helps with the organization’s fundraising activities in April. Camp Good Days & Special Times is near and dear to Emily’s heart, as she lost her sister to cancer when she was very young. Emily is driven to give back to the community as much as she can to help others facing similar struggles as she and her family have.
In addition to her exceptional work with Camp Good Days, Emily is an outstanding student that demonstrates academic excellence (GPA 3.98) while committing her time and energy to help others. Last January, Emily traveled to the Dominican Republic as part of a service learning course where she delivered a workshop on accounting and business management to a group of small business owners served by Hilbert’s community partner. In collaboration with ENACTUS and Catholic Charities of Buffalo, Emily is working on adapting the workshop delivered in the Dominican Republic to an accounting and Microsoft Excel curriculum that she will teach to refugees and immigrants resettled in the Buffalo area.
Emily, a junior accounting major, has taken many leadership roles in campus clubs including holding the position of Treasurer for both the Franciscan Spirit Club and ENACTUS. Additionally, Emily is the past Treasurer of the Student Government Association, a position she held in her sophomore year.
She was recently awarded Hilbert College’s St. Clare Student of the Year Award - an award presented to a current student who has distinguished him or herself as an exemplar of the Franciscan mission and tradition of Hilbert by displaying the college’s core values. Additionally, Emily was a proud recipient of the Kohl’s Kids Who Care award for implementing the first Alex’s Lemonade stand in Buffalo to raise money and awareness of childhood cancer research. Through her efforts, over $8000 was raised for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
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Hilbert College, located in suburban Hamburg, N.Y., south of Buffalo, is a private four-year college founded in 1957 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition. With nearly 1,000 students, Hilbert is a dynamic Western New York college that offers career-focused majors, including one of the top criminal justice programs in the region, and more than 50 minors and concentrations. The college’s engaging, student-centered campus community offers numerous leadership, internship, and service learning opportunities from which students launch successful careers while making positive changes in their communities. The Hilbert Blueprint promotes a well-rounded student experience over four years – starting with the Foundations Seminar in the freshman year, followed by Sophomore Service, Junior Symposium, and culminating with the Senior Capstone. Hilbert has expanded its academic offerings with the college’s first graduate programs and evening degree programs geared to adult learners.
About The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York
Founded in 1956, The Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) represents more than 100 private, not-for-profit colleges and universities located here in New York State. Together, Independent Sector campuses educate nearly 500,000 students and are responsible for more than 400,000 jobs statewide.