Chris Varin of Burlington, a member of the Champlain College Class of 1994, was presented with the Roger H. Perry Alumni Award on campus on September 24, 2005. The award honors accomplishments in his career and service to the community. Chris is Senior Vice President and second-in-command in the Vermont office of Marsh Management Services, a multi-national corporation that manages over 200 captive insurance companies in Vermont alone.

Chris has always been good with numbers, a good skill for an accountant, CPA and self-professed computer geek. Born and raised in Burlington, Chris worked in high school as a “bookkeeping float” performing a variety of backroom operations for Chittenden Bank.

On the first day of class at Champlain College, Chris remember his Accounting professor Walt Luchini telling his students that 50% of them would leave the program after finding out what Accounting was really about. Chris says that the class was the equivalent of “Accounting boot camp,” but it served as the right motivation. He found his professors willing to go the extra mile and he appreciated those who could pace a class according to the various abilities of the students.

After receiving his Associate’s degree at Champlain in 1989, Chris became a staff accountant for a short stint and then landed his first position at Marsh Management Services. Chris returned to Champlain when the College began offering a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and, while working full-time, he completed his degree. Chris passed the CPA exam and became licensed as a CPA in 1994. Chris remembers the dedication, support and high standards of his professors, most notably Walt Luchini and Champ Soncrant. He says that both offered extra classes after exams for those advanced students who wanted to be better prepared for the CPA examination and life as a CPA.

When you talk to Chris, a couple of words seem to come up often: support and honor. The people who most helped him to become who he is today -- the ones who supported his dreams -- include his parents, who were always encouraging, and his boss of more than a decade, Julie Boucher, who, Chris says, “softens my rough edges.” He also credits a fellow alumna, who also happens to be his wife, Jennifer, as the stable and dependable one in his life. According to Chris, the definition of success in business is “helping things along while maintaining your honor.”
 

J. P. Allen -- C. Bader Brouilette Alumni Award

James P. Allen of Aurora, Colorado, a former trustee of Champlain College, was presented with the C. Bader Brouilette Alumni Award on campus on September 24, 2005. The award honors accomplishments in his career and service to the community. J. P. is the principal of James P. Allen, Inc., financial advisors specializing in affordable housing with a focus on senior and special needs housing.

J. P. grew up in the North End of Burlington, Vermont and attended Rice High School nearby. By the time he went to Champlain College, he already knew that he had the drive to succeed; he feels that Champlain ignited his determination. He says, “I knew I wasn’t the brightest student, but I had a good work ethic and a strong desire.” J. P. discovered the lifelong value of perseverance, vision and follow-through. He received his Associate’s degree in Business from Champlain College in 1967, and his BA one year later from Johnson State College. He then landed his first job as a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch.

His professional successes in the financial world include working for E. F. Hutton, serving as a Vice President in the Treasury Division for J. P. Morgan, and working several years with Salomon Brothers in Sales and Trading, Investment Banking, and eventually in Real Estate. J. P. found a new area of interest that led him to a position as the Managing Partner of the Affordable Housing Finance Corporation. Today, his career pays testament to the degree to which he holds his personal values and his willingness to follow his personal philosophy: “If you think you’re right, persevere.”

In particular, J. P. holds two men who were part of his Champlain experience in high regard: John Bankus, the Vice-President for Finance, who became a role model, and C. Bader Brouilette, whose vision impressed him. Brouilette was responsible for the campus move from downtown Burlington to the beautiful hill section, for giving the College its current name, and for the acquisition of 11 more buildings before he retired in 1977.

J. P. currently serves as a member of the Citizens Advisory Budget Committee for the city of Aurora, Colorado. He has a soft spot and a deep respect for the power of the family. Family is where you find the unconditional love that empowers you to do hard things, unpopular things, he says. J. P. finds that love and the power in the woman he married, Christina.

The first teacher he met at Champlain College was Warren Gingras. Professor Gingras always wrote “W. G.” on the chalk board, leaving most to assume those were his initials. When asked one day, he said that the letters stood for “Wonderful Guy.” J. P. liked that approach and decided that his initials of J. P. A. would henceforth stand for “Just Plain Awesome.”
 

Allison Crowley DeMag -- Robert A. Skiff Alumni Award

Allison Crowley DeMag of Burlington, a member of the Champlain College Class of 1986, was presented with the Robert A. Skiff Alumni Award on campus on September 24, 2005. The award honors accomplishments in her career and service to the community. Allison is now a principal of Morris Demag McCarty, Inc., a lobbying and public relations firm in downtown Burlington.

Allison grew up three blocks from Champlain College. Her mother graduated from the school when it was the Burlington Business College, and Allison in turn graduated from Champlain in 1986. Upon graduation, she took her pick of interviews from numerous businesses eager to employ a Champlain graduate. She went to work in the insurance industry as an assistant to Barry Stone of the Barry Stone Agency, eventually becoming a licensed life and health insurance agent herself.

In the early nineties, her father, former state Senator Tom Crowley, got her interested in lobbying. Allison has worked with Gerry Morris ever since. While the word “lobbyist” sometimes conjures images of industry representatives wearing expensive suits and buying influence, Allison says that “slick” doesn’t work in Vermont. The citizen legislature puts real people into the role of lawmaker for part of the year and then they return to their regular lives. In doing so, the state manages to avoid some of the trappings of politics and she feels that this is a better system of representation for it.

Allison has fond memories of Joan Wingate, her favorite professor at Champlain, who put on a tough exterior but was extremely knowledgeable and supportive of her students. Computers were relatively new then and not in widespread use: those were still the days of shorthand and typewriters. Allison says that her education prepared her to walk out the doors of Champlain and into the world of business. Perhaps as a form of payback, she worked for Champlain College on the Power of Three campaign in the Alumni Division.

Allison donates her time to the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She is part of a close-knit family of parents and siblings, all of whom live in Chittenden County. Her guiding philosophy is to treat people the way you would like to be treated, which works both at home and in the halls of the Statehouse. A personal commitment to life-long learning helps her to understand a client’s business or an opposing viewpoint. Married with two children and a career she loves, at this point in her life, Allison says, “I have what I want.”

But just as Robert Skiff went on to other ventures after his presidency here, perhaps Allison gives us a hint of her future intentions when she says that the seat in the Vermont Senate once held by her father might one day have to come back to the family.

Mary Jane Rozendaal -- A. Gordon Tittemore Alumni Award

Mary Jane Rozendaal of Burlington, a member of the Champlain College Class of 1958, was presented with the A. Gordon Tittemore Alumni Award on campus on September 24, 2005. The award honors accomplishments in her career and service to the community.

Mary Jane was part of the first group of graduates of the Burlington Business College who began her education in 1956 in the space over MacGregor’s Pharmacy on Main Street (now the site of Nectar’s) and who completed her degree at the newly named Champlain College on the hill-side campus. She was one of five in the class of medical secretaries to graduate in 1958. Later, she formed a local chapter of medical secretaries and served as its president.

Mary Jane singles out a couple of teachers from the Champlain family that made her time there more meaningful. Marilyn Reid MacKenzie’s secretarial classes and George Hard’s anatomy classes prepared her well for her career. She has high praise for then-president C. Bader Brouilette as a source of personal inspiration.

For Mary Jane, who is married with a family of three children, family has always been and continues to be a strong component in her life. When her own children moved out, the Rozendaals’ home served as alternative housing over the years for 11 students, some from Champlain. She has also opened her home to a teacher from London on an exchange program.
In addition to her work and family obligations, Mary Jane has found time for volunteer service throughout her life. She has sat on the board of the Red Cross and Fletcher Allen Health Care.

Today, Mary Jane volunteers every week at the University Health Center in the Hematology-Oncology Unit. The coffee cakes she bakes weekly, which now number 139 to date, are very popular and a highlight among the patients and staff. She is very involved with the Cancer Patient Support Program and helps to raise money for its annual ball in June and other events associated with the cancer cause. She has also been an active member of St. John Vianney Church in South Burlington since her early childhood.

The Rozendaals, along with business partner Dick Corley and Bill Hauke took an active part in a capital campaign to help Champlain raise money for a campus center -- the Hauke Family Campus Center. More recently, working on the Power of Three capital campaign, Mary Jane served on the Kick-Off Event Committee, the group that put the fun and enthusiasm into Champlain’s biggest and most successful fundraising effort.

Given her warmth, humility, sense of family and spirit of community service, it doesn’t come as a surprise when Mary Jane reflects upon her accomplishments by saying, “I really haven’t done anything. I’ve tried to be a good mother, wife and partner. I feel good about that.”

Peter Pizzagalli -- Vermont Alumni Award

Peter Pizzagalli of Burlington, Vermont, was presented with the Vermont Alumni Award on campus on September 24, 2005. The award honors accomplishments in his career and service to the community. As the owner of Pizzagalli Racing Engines, Peter exemplifies many of the attributes that best characterize a Vermonter: a solid work ethic, persistence, determination, loyalty and down-to-earth common sense.

After graduating from high school in 1982, Peter joined the Vermont Army National Guard and enrolled at Champlain College. One year of study told him that he wasn’t ready to be a college student yet, so he enlisted in the U.S. Army, remaining on active duty until 1987. By then he knew he was ready for school, and returned to Champlain, earning a degree in Business.

The son of Remo and Donna Pizzagalli of Pizzagalli Construction Company, Peter worked various construction jobs, and then became a house framer. But he never forgot his first love, which, from high school on, has been engines, specifically, performance engines. His reputation on the racing circuit grew gradually until he took the plunge and went full-time in 1996. Today, he has turned his love into a livelihood. Peter creates custom-built, high-performance engines for stock cars, drag racers and very fast boats as part of the SuperFlow Technologies Group. Some racers on the local scene credit their wins to the fact that Peter worked on their engines.

Peter has done things in his life that most of us would call “extraordinary,” but he takes them in stride. He saved a life in a boating accident a few years ago. In 2003, 16 years after leaving active duty, he rejoined the Army Guard for the express purpose of being sent overseas. As an Army Ranger and a member of the elite Special Forces, he was boots-on-the-ground in Afghanistan for a full year as part of a team whose mission was to train Afghani troops to be better soldiers in the defense of their own country.

When asked to identify a mentor in his life, Peter credits two people: his mother and his father. He says his parents supported him and, by example, taught him the work ethic that leads to success. He is proud to be an Army Ranger, glad to have survived Afghanistan and happy to be running a fun and successful business. He follows a couple of personal credos in the pursuit of a fulfilling life: pay attention to detail and like what you do.