Alex Parrish receives 2013 President's Award for Excellence
Alex Parrish, media and promotions manager for the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech, has received the university's 2013 President's Award for Excellence.
The President's Award for Excellence is presented annually to up to five Virginia Tech staff employees who have made extraordinary contributions by consistent excellence in the performance of their job or a single incident, contribution, or heroic act. Each recipient is awarded a $2,000 cash prize.
Parrish has worked for the institute for four years as a graphic designer, Web designer, video producer, writer, editor, and visual artist.
“As a result of Alex’s efforts, [the institute] has developed a media campaign that brings extremely positive attention to the university,” said Jon Greene, associate director of strategic planning. “He has demonstrated energy and creativity through his unique interpretation and implementation of university templates and style standards for our Web redesign.”
Parrish's former supervisor, Ann Craig, said, “Alex is a connoisseur of the creative arts who innately telegraphs the university motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), through every action and at every opportunity.”
This year, Parrish worked with a student assistant on a mobile site application for the website and created videos for screen displays located throughout the institute’s buildings. Greene said Parrish’s development of proposal graphics has been critical to the institute developing new research opportunities.
“Often Alex is asked to interpret verbal ideas or concepts to create a cohesive graphic representation, and he has responded positively to both the creative challenge and the compressed time schedule,” Greene said.
“Perhaps what I value most about Alex is his enthusiasm and positive attitude,” said Roop Mahajan, director of the institute. “He approaches all that he does with tremendous energy and radiates the 'can do' attitude that I’m looking to impress upon all [institute] employees.”
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
Written by Catherine Doss.
