Sharon L. Irvin receives 2014 Staff Career Achievement Award
Sharon L. Irvin of Pembroke, Va., retired business manager for the Department of Mathematics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has received the university’s 2014 Staff Career Achievement award.
Irvin retired from the university in 2013 after 39 years of service to the university.
Created in 2011 to recognize retiring staff members, the Staff Career Achievement Award is presented annually to as many as five individuals who have distinguished themselves through exemplary performance and service during their university career. Nominees must have served a minimum of 10 years at Virginia Tech. Each recipient is awarded a $1,000 cash prize.
In her role with the Department of Mathematics, Irvin was responsible for all fiscal matters, including personnel and payroll, graduate assistantships, and grant expenditures. She consistently managed budgets in ways that made it possible to offer classes for students that would build a foundation for growth in their lives.
Irvin’s colleagues remember her for her outstanding attention to detail and her enthusiasm.
In addition to her daily contributions, Irvin was instrumental in the creation of the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Mathematics. The center opened in 1987 and she provided valuable guidance to the new faculty and staff to ensure their success. The success of center, her colleagues say, is due in large part to her extraordinary contributions during her career at Virginia Tech.
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.
