- Deanna Vasilakis
Out of 4,000 graduates last spring, 10 were chosen as 21st Century Leaders in recognition of their academic distinction and exceptional achievement. Deanna Vasilakis of Andover was one of them.
As the campus campaign manager for Teach for America, she created a marketing kit that has been adopted for national use. The effort yielded a 286 percent increase in the UMass Teach for America applicant pool. It’s not her only achievement.
A journalism major with a minor in education, Vasilakis was head teaching assistant for a management course of 475 students. She recruited teachers to work in under-achieving schools, was a resident assistant, and a Learning Community Assistant at Commonwealth College. She earned a 3.9 grade point average and served as commencement speaker at the Commonwealth College graduation. She has committed the next two years to elementary school children in the Bronx, New York, working with Teach for America.
Letters from faculty members convinced the committee that Vasilakis should receive the coveted designation in May.
Recommending Vasilakis for the award, management professor Robert Marx wrote that she “made me a better person for knowing her, and helped me appreciate what is important to our work and in our lives.”
“It’s nice to have my efforts recognized,” Vasilakis said, “and to know that I left my mark.”
