Showing a Lot of Promise

One of the best parts of this job is meeting all sorts of students who show so much promise. One of the latest of that slew of students is Alanda Alexandre, who recently won the first-ever $5,000 Promise Prize at Montclair State. She is a junior pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and Management Information Systems and a minor in Mathematics. Somehow she also finds time to juggle four jobs on campus and be involved with a host of extra-curricular activities while maintaining a 3.6 GPA.

I had the pleasure of sitting next to Alanda May 7 when she received her award during the School of Business Faculty/Staff Recognition Lunch. I learned about Alanda’s aspirations to be a financial planner, her internships and jobs, and her move to New Jersey from Haiti in 2010. I also was lucky to meet Alanda’s cousin, Kimberly Pierre, who is also a Montclair State junior and is studying molecular biology, with the goal of being a neonatologist someday. Watch out world, because these women are graduating from Montclair State soon and will no doubt be successes making an impact wherever they end up (although I’m hoping it will be in New Jersey because we don’t want to lose talent like this).

You know who Alanda reminds me of? Vikki Pryor, the donor who decided Montclair State would join four other schools across the country–Bronx Community College, State University of New York at Buffalo, University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Iowa–in receiving the Promise Prize. Vikki has a JD and MBA, and is a CPA. She has 30 years of experience in health care, insurance and marketing, operations, technology and branding. Vikki is involved in business and philanthropic efforts in communities across the country, and founded the Change Create Transform Foundation in 2010 as part of her commitment to the community.

But here’s, perhaps, the best thing about Vikki: she is a master networker and connector extraordinaire! I have been to Vikki’s events, and they are always packed with the most interesting and impressive people who you could talk to for hours.

And I bet those people were Alandas and Kimberlys in earlier days.