Anna Marie Garippo Sciaraffa receives Dominican's Outstanding Volunteer Award

RIVER FOREST, IL (05/03/2011)(readMedia)-- Anna Marie Garippo Sciaraffa, a resident of Chicago, recently received Dominican University's O'Keefe Award for Outstanding Volunteer Leadership.

Sciaraffa has been a dedicated advocate for Dominican University since her graduation from Rosary College in 1949. She served as president of the Alumnae/i Board from 1972-74, followed by two years as the alumnae/i trustee on the Board of Trustees. She became the first layperson to hold the position of Director of Alumnae/i Relations. During her tenure, she expanded the annual alumnae/i reunion from a luncheon to a three-day event. She also strengthened the class agent program, which keeps alumnae/i connected to each other and to Dominican.

Sciaraffa and her late husband helped foster the next generation of alumnae/i, endowing two scholarships and sending one of their own children to Dominican. Even now, she helps coordinate an annual class luncheon of the Class of 1949 with two of her classmates, Sr. Jean Murray and Claire Cusack Cronin. An active volunteer in her community, Sciaraffa has shared her gifts with St. Giles parish, her children's schools and other community groups.

The O'Keefe Outstanding Volunteer Achievement Award is named in honor of Ruth McGrath O'Keefe, a 1935 graduate of Dominican University, and is presented each year to a dedicated volunteer for his or her life-long advocacy on behalf of the university.

Founded in 1901, Dominican University is a comprehensive, coeducational Catholic institution offering bachelor's degrees through the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences and master's degrees through the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the Brennan School of Business, the School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Work. The university also offers a doctoral degree in library and information science. In the 2011 issue of America's Best Colleges, U.S. News & World Report ranked Dominican University in the top 20 of Midwest master's level universities. The magazine also ranked Dominican as one of three Great Schools at a Great Price in Illinois.