Nadine K. Lewis, HEOP counselor/tutor coordinator, was a training advisor/job coach for the Youth Development Resource Corporation (YRDC) Summer Employment Program for summer 2000. Ms. Lewis supervised a team of special education students from Arlington High School. The YRDC program is designed to expose young people to positive work habits, strong work ethics, teamwork and career exploration through various employment experiences in the community as a team worker or intern. The Arlington team gained work experience at sites such as Hospice, Inc., Hudson Valley Food Works, James Baird State Park, the Family Partnership Center and the Marist College Center for Career Services. Career Services is the first office at Marist to sponsor a YRDC team, although YRDC interns have worked at the college in previous years. The team assisted the staff with mailings to students and faculty regarding the services provided by the office.

Dr. Roy Merolli, executive vice president, Bruce Wagner, assistant vice president for human Resources, and Dr. Karen Hinton, director of institutional research and planning, were invited to make a presentation at the Northeast Regional Conference of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) in Boston on April 4. The topic of the presentation, "Planning Process Support Through Performance Management," described the development of a linkage between Marist's strategic planning process and the administrative performance appraisal process.

Based on a previous presentation Dr. Merolli and Dr. Hinton made on the Marist strategic plan at the 1999 SCUP regional conference, the college was selected as a benchmark institution for the Connecticut State University system's strategic planning process.

Victoria F. Sarkisian, linguistic coordinator of the Academic Learning Center, was recently recognized by the SUNY-New Paltz chapter of Phi Delta Kappa for distinguished service to education. Phi Delta Kappa is an organization whose aims are to further public education.

The Marist College Red Foxes and the Office of Special Services hosted the 10th annual "Kids' Day Out!" basketball clinic to benefit the Scholarship for Students with Disabilities this past spring. The staff of the Office of Special Services would like to thank the members of the Red Foxes basketball teams who participated: Lauren Baskinger, Cortnie Ciaccio, Katie Daley, Elisha DeJesus, Nick Eppehimer, Sarah Ferguson, Marie Fusci, Tom Kenney, Tara Knight, Kyle Mostransky, Mellanie Nai, Drew Samuels, Diesa Seidel, Rick Smith, Sean Stellato, Jenn Taylor, Sarah Tift, Sabrina Vallery and Sherman Whittenburg as well as members of the Red Foxes' coaching staff Mike Benfer and Emily Dembrosky. The office also thanks volunteers Frank Scorza and Christopher Blasie, who helped with registration.

Thanks to the effort and support of these individuals, the Office of Special Services was able to host about 100 participants and raise approximately $900 to benefit the scholarship fund.

Also this past spring, the staff and students of the Office of Special Services recognized eight extraordinary individuals for their contributions over the past year to Marist College on behalf of students with disabilities, both in service to them and in heightening campus awareness through their sensitivity.

At an April 12 reception, the Office of Special Services awarded a certificate of recognition to staff members Jane Fiore, Patty Houmiel, Mary Murphy and Katy Silberger, former staff member Linda Furey and faculty members Sara Dwyer-McNulty, Barbara McCarthy and Robert Sullivan.

Seven Marist staff members earned degrees from the college this past May and August. They are JoAnn DePue, B.S.; Ellen Kalaus, M.P.A.; Julie Kelly, B.A.; Connie Kustas, M.S.; Colin McCann, M.A.; Deborah Reeves-Duncan, M.A.; and Carol Toufali, M.P.A. In addition, in June Marist hired Susan Goulet, who earned a B.A. from the college in May 2000.