SBU's Woman of Promise Award Recognizes Manuela Marin Salcedo

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — St. Bonaventure University's Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication named senior Manuela Marin Salcedo as the recipient of the 2012 Dr. Mary A. Hamilton Woman of Promise Award.  

St. Bonaventure's Woman of Promise Award is presented to a female J/MC senior who excels in and out of the classroom and sets a good example for her peers. Marin Salcedo expects to graduate with honors in May. In addition to her journalism and mass communication major, she is pursuing minors in English and Italian. She plans to attend graduate school at either Syracuse University or Ohio University to obtain a master's in photojournalism. She dreams of becoming a National Geographic photographer, kindly changing the world one frame at a time.

The awards presentation will be at 4 p.m. March 20 in Dresser Auditorium, located in the John J. Murphy Professional Building. SBU alumna Kathy Geller Meyers, '90, director of marketing and media relations for Youth Advocate Programs Inc., will serve as the keynote speaker.  

Throughout her career, Geller Myers has used words to tell powerful state and national stories for non-profit clients, their issues and their causes, often affecting public policy and garnering industry awards as well. In her current position, she works with media in 19 states to promote Youth Advocate Programs Inc. services for at-risk teens and young adults.

The Woman of Promise Award is presented to a student who, in the faculty's opinion, possesses all the skills necessary to not only succeed but also thrive in her post-graduate career. Marin Salcedo is certainly no exception.  

Soon, Marin Salcedo plans to become a social entrepreneur and transform her honors project — an ethnographic study of a tiny coastal village in Colombia — into a foundation.

The Woman of Promise Award is named in honor of Dr. Mary A. Hamilton, a retired associate professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure. A 1959 Bona grad, Hamilton returned in 1982 as a faculty member and also served as chair of the then-journalism department.