Rev. Vincent M. Cooke, S.J. was named the 2001 Executive of the Year by the Buffalo/Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives during an awards dinner on Monday. 

Father Cooke was honored for his outstanding achievements as president of Canisius College. He is credited with moving Canisius into the top ranks of comprehensive colleges and universities in the Northeast; spearheading an aggressive $85 million capital improvement program that changed the face of the college's campus; and serving as architect of the college's historic capital campaign that raised $39 million for capital projects and scholarship endowment.

Congratulations Father Cooke!

"It's an outstanding achievement for Shauna and the women's basketball program," said Tim Dillon, director of athletics.  "Shauna has worked so hard the last four years both on the court and in the classroom so it's good to see her time and effort rewarded."

The college recognized her outstanding accomplishments by naming last Friday "Shauna Geronzin Night."  A special ceremony to recognize her achievements was held before the game against Loyola.

Geronzin went on to score 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds in her final game at home on Sunday, February 24. With her third rebound in the first half, she became only the second player in program history to score over 1,000 points and execute more than 900 career rebounds.  She is the second all-time leading scorer at Canisius, trailing only Ray Hall and his 2,226 career points.

The women's basketball scoring record was previously held by Heather Fiore (1,949 scoring points) who played at Canisius from 1993-97.

"I believe that we agree that our country needs leadership now more than ever before. And I think we would agree that since this is a place [Canisius College] that makes leaders, all of us ought to be involved," said Shuttlesworth. "It is time we ensure that everyone have the same rights, privileges and opportunities regardless of status, color or ethnicity."

When the state of Alabama banned the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1956, Shuttlesworth co-founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.  The following year, he helped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the main civil rights group working in the deep south.  Shuttlesworth also advised Dr. Martin Luther King during the Montgomery bus boycott and spearheaded Project Confrontation against Birmingham, Alabama's violent police commissioner, Bull Connor.

Shuttlesworth explained how God helped make him a catalyst for change and spoke of the terrific challenges he endured during the civil rights movement. He described his ordeals, which included the bombing of his home and church in Birmingham and shared his philosophy about these challenges, "I have grown and I have learned that anything you go through that doesn't make you better leaves you worse off for not remembering how God brought you through."

He defined his role in the fight for equal rights by stating that God had a purpose for him and for everyone. "God has you where you are for a purpose, perhaps which you do not know yet," said Shuttlesworth.  "If you are willing to use what little of Him that you have in you, then you will find you do bigger and better things." 

Shuttlesworth concluded with words, which he thought Martin Luther King Jr. might impart on students of the modern day. "We must not become educated to be adjusted just like the system, for our country is not yet what it ought to be so you have to be maladjusted. Don't become like the system but become different so that you can question and you can think. And you won't have to be like the generation that has gone before and has not made things different."