Slovakia’s gift to Mt. Airy wins ‘top student award’
West Mt. Airy’s Alena Minarovicova receives the award for being the best student in La Salle University’s Master’s in Professional Communication Program in Prague. On the left is Dr. Thomas Keagy, Dean of the School of Arts and Science at La Salle and on the right is Dr. Gerry Molyneaux, a professor of communication at La Salle.
by JON CAROULIS
Alena Minarovicova, a native of Slovakia who studied Communication at a La Salle University Master’s program in Prague, finished her thesis while living in West Mt. Airy and working two jobs. At one point, she was pursuing two master’s degrees in two countries. For her dedication and superior performance, she received the top student award last week in La Salle’s Professional Communication in Prague program.
“Even as she was traveling from Slovakia to Prague twice a month to take the weekend-long courses in our program, Alena was also completing another master’s degree in business administration back in Slovakia,” said Brother Gerry Molyneaux, F.S.C., a La Salle communication faculty member.
“She spent her summers earning her tuition. For four years, she came to the United States working at a Pennsylvania summer camp, first as a food service supervisor then as a leadership course supervisor. What her employer describes as ‘great perseverance’ and ‘self motivation’ signal the kind of student that faculty discovered in the classrooms in Prague.”
Minarovicova said she could earn more money in the United States to pay her tuition than if she stayed in her homeland.
“I was also learning English, which was very important for the language development that I needed for my schooling,” said Minarovicova, who, while still a Slovakian citizen, now lives permanently in West Mt. Airy.
“Neither of the schools I studied at had any way to recognize their students, so I was very surprised (to have been recognized),” she said. “When I told my friends who I live with about the award, they had to explain to me how big a deal it was to receive it. So, it was a big and unexpected surprise, and I was able to fully understand the meaning of the award only at the ceremony, when I found myself among the elite students of La Salle University, where I never thought I’d be.”
This past year, she completed an internship (a requirement for her La Salle degree) with Gillespie Advertising in Drexel Hill, Pa., while simultaneously working part-time at Philadelphia Sign Company, located in Palmyra, N.J. She now works there full-time, where her primary responsibility is administration of clients’ web sites and their regular updates.
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