Genesee Community College Announces February Employee and Student of the Month

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Jennifer Bryant (left) and Marilyn Mullen (right) along with President Stuart Steiner (middle).

BATAVIA, NY (03/04/2009)(readMedia)-- Genesee Community College is pleased to announce Marilyn Mullen has been named Employee of the Month for February. She has been working at Genesee for 13 years and currently holds the position of Senior Library Clerk. Marilyn always has a smile and welcomes all who visit the library, and patrons and staff enjoy her sense of humor and kindness.

Marilyn started her career at Genesee in 1996 as a part-time library clerk and became a full-time clerk in 2001. She currently manages the Circulation and Reserve Desk where she supervises registrations, checking in and out of materials, processing faculty reserves, loaning to students and back-up interlibrary loan requests. She also trains and supervises part-time staff and work study students.

During her time at Genesee, she has embraced and excelled in adapting to the many rapid changes in library technologies and services. Most recently, with the implementation of the new ILLiad interlibrary loan system, Marilyn has been intensively cross-training to provide backup to the interlibrary loan service. She is an enthusiastic contributor to projects and committees that improve the library and has used her creative talents and technical skills to elevate the library's signage, information handouts, and web graphics to works of art.

A resident of Batavia, Marilyn is married to her husband Mike and has three daughters. Before coming to Genesee, Marilyn was a stay-at-home mom to her daughters, Burgundy, Chelsea and Samantha. She enjoys gardening, sewing, knitting and cooking in her spare time.

"My favorite aspect of working at Genesee is definitely the people!" Mullen said.

Genesee Community College is pleased to name Jennifer Bryant as Student of the Month for February 2009. Jennifer is a Paralegal Studies major and is very active in the College community. A Batavia native, Jennifer manages to balance a busy college class schedule, campus activities, as well as being a mom to her two year old daughter, Paige.

Jennifer came to Genesee after spending four years in the military, with three of those years overseas. She wanted to return to the area to be closer to her family and wanted to ease back into a college setting after being out of high school for six years. She was attracted to Genesee for its smaller class sizes and its non-traditional student population.

"I wanted a college that would have students like me," Jennifer said. "I'm older, I've been out of high school for a while and I'm a parent now, so my college experience is different than most students."

Jennifer is currently the president of the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society that serves to recognize and encourage the academic achievement of two-year college students and provide opportunities for individual growth and development through honors, leadership, and service programming. Through her work with PTK, she has developed many successful service activities such as a Plastic Bag Recycling Drive, and the "Re-Use a Shoe" sneaker recycling drive. She is an active member of the Honors Program and has written for the College's student newspaper, The New Courier.

Jennifer was nominated for the SUNY Chancellor's Award and the All-USA Academic Team. She has also been accepted into the International Scholar Laureate Program on Diplomacy and International Relations.

After graduating from Genesee in May 2009, Jennifer plans on attending SUNY Brockport or SUNY Geneseo to pursue a degree in Political Science or International Relations and eventually attend law school. Her dream job would be working as a district attorney and then ultimately opening her own law practice.

The daughter of Janet Bryant, Jennifer currently resides in Corfu, NY and enjoys spending time with her two year old daughter, Paige Aurora Bryant. Jennifer jokes that Paige has been named the unofficial mascot of Phi Theta Kappa, "She is at almost every PTK event; she's like our little mascot."

Jennifer has enjoyed her time at Genesee and her favorite part is the faculty that has paved the way for her success. "All the teachers I have had classes with have been very passionate, knowledgeable, and extremely encouraging of their students. They love teaching and it's inspirational to students. The small class sizes allow for discussion and more individualized attention to each student making you feel like you matter and are not just a number in the system."

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