Award Recipients

The New Professional Award may be presented to SoACE members with no more than five years of experience in the profession who have demonstrated significant contributions to career services and/or recruitment. It is meant to recognize “future leaders” within the association.  Contribution may be to the association, a state association, NACE, or through direct activities as a part of their normal employment.  These activities must show innovation, reflect foresight, and display promise that the individual has the unique quality of future leadership. Paige Hellman, Senior Career Coordinator at the Texas A&M University Career Center, was presented with this award at the 2018 Annual Conference in Atlanta.

Paige was nominated by Dr. Michael Shehane, Director of Campus Programs at the Texas A&M Career Center. His nomination described her as follows:

“Leadership, innovation, foresight…these words barely scratch the surface for the accomplishments she has achieved so early in her career.

Soon after joining the Texas A&M Career Center as the Career Coordinator for First and Second Year Students, Paige lead both regional and national initiatives to bring early engagement in career advising to the forefront…by developing the First and Second Year Career Advising Consortium, a collection of career services professionals from across the nation dedicated to serving first and second year students, representing more than 25 institutions from coast to coast, large to small, and public to private.

She also organized a collaborative panel for the 2017 SoACE conference titled “First and Second Year Students: Building a Bridge to Early Career Engagement,” and launched the “First and Second Year Initiatives Career Advising Focus Area” currently serving as the coordinator through SoACE. This focus area hosted the “Summer Sharing Series,” a three-part webinar that focused on early engagement and best practices for sophomore and freshman programming.

And, perhaps best stated by students she has assisted through her primary role as Career Coordinator in the Texas A&M Career Center, “Everything she does is for the betterment of the students she serves.  She has dedicated herself to helping others learn and develop and is so loved by her students for being the catalyst that she is.”  Another student shared, “She impacted my college experience by first and foremost helping me to understand what it meant to be persistent and work toward my dreams.”

Dr. Shehane ends his nomination by stating, “It is one thing to come to work every day and give back to your students and your institution.  It is another to recognize an opportunity to so drastically impact your industry—change the landscape by starting an absolutely necessary conversation—and seize the moment to make a long-lasting difference.”

Paige Hellman serves as a Senior Career Coordinator within the Career Center at Texas A&M University. Paige primarily works with first and second-year students, developing campus relationships and programs aiming to engage students in career planning and exploration as early as possible. Her goal is to aid students in selecting majors and careers based on their values. Paige also serves as the advisor for Aggie Career Team, the Career Center’s career peer educator program. Paige earned a B.A. in Communication from Texas A&M University in 2015 and an M.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of South Carolina in 2017. She will begin pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University in Fall 2019.

The Southern Star Award may be presented to a person to recognize significant and outstanding contributions to the profession, to society, or to SoACE.  The Southern Star Award is a prestigious recognition of service and contributions exceeded only in significance within SoACE by the Founders Award. SoACE was very proud to present Myrna Hoover, Director of the Florida State University Career Center, with the 2018 Southern Star Award at the Annual Conference in December.

When Past President, Ray Rogers, presented Myrna’s award in December, he shared the following statement from one of her nominators, Alicia Smyth from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University:

When I think about the number of people that she has touched in her 30+ year career at Florida State University, I am overcome.  She is the epitome of leadership, mentorship, professionalism, and grace – and those characteristics rub off on everyone lucky enough to know her.  The year I graduated from college, she was President of FloridaACE.  When I joined the association in 2000, she was someone to look up to, admire, and want to be like. I was in awe of her positivity, energy, and ability to connect with others in a way that made them feel important and valued. Fast-forward nearly 20 years later and she is still mentoring, guiding, and helping professionals be successful – whether it be at FSU or within the professional associations of which she is such a vital part.  Of all her outstanding qualities, and there are many, the one that stands out most to me is her humility.  She is neither prideful nor boastful. She has won many professional awards and has been featured in syndicated newspapers as a person to know. But you won’t hear about it from her. It is her team that shares her successes and accolades because they are so proud of their fearless leader.

And speaking of her team, the Florida State University Program Director for Employer Relations and of one of the 2017 SoACE Honorary Lifetime Membership Award Recipients, Scott Maynard, shared the following:

I don’t know anyone more deserving of the Southern Star Award.  She has dedicated her career to making our profession better and showing others how to position their career centers to be viewed as a pivotal part of the campus environment.  She has demonstrated how to integrate career advising, experiential education, employer relations, and career development technology into a centralized model serving all students and alumni.  She has spent her career giving back to the profession and sharing ideas and resources with others.  Her kind demeanor and gentle nature make her approachable to everyone and she is always willing to jump in to make a project, an organization, or an individual – successful.

Myrna Hoover is the Director of the Florida State University Career Center and has over 32 years of career services experience. In this role, she leads a team of 39 professionals and 30 paraprofessionals who provide comprehensive career services to both students and alumni and coordinate university wide recruitment and employer relations programs. She has presented at national, regional and state conferences on best practices for both career services and employer relations, and has served as a program reviewer of university career centers at the national level. Myrna co-authored, the National Career Development Association published monograph, Employer Relations and Recruitment: An Essential Part of the Postsecondary Career Services. She has served on the NACE First-Destination Survey Standards and Protocols Taskforce and NACE Graduate Student Membership Taskforce. She is a Lifetime Honorary Member and past president of the Florida Association of Colleges and Employers and the recipient of that association’s 2002 Brownlee Award for outstanding service and excellence in the field of career services. Myrna served on the Product Development team for the Career Services Manager software developed by NACE and Direct Employers and served for three years as one of the seven “Go Team” consultants for NACE. During her career, she also taught Public Speaking and Business Communication at Valdosta State College and Florida State University. Prior to her work in the career services Myrna was an Instructor and the Director of Forensics at Manatee Community College. Myrna was recently named one of the 2018 25 Women you need to know in Tallahassee. Myrna also serves on the Board of Trustees for Capital Regional Medical Center and FSU Human Resources Management Center. Myrna has a Master’s degree in Communication from Florida State University.