IDEAL Award Speech 2021

Recipient: Jami Silver

Presenter: Sharonda Dailey

I’m honored to present the IDEAL award to this year’s recipient. 

When the call for nominations went out and I read the description for the IDEAL award, this individual immediately came to mind as they are committed to everything the award was created to recognize. Indeed, it’s been refreshing to work alongside this year’s recipient on a variety of projects because they are not interested in just talking about what needs to be done--they are eager to take action.

This person has over two decades of experience in the field working on both sides of the desk at a variety of institutions, both private and public. Having found their calling in college counseling, they have been committed to conducting their practice with a constant eye towards equity and inclusion. 

When other educators shut down for the evening or wind down for the summer, this person has chosen to volunteer their time for initiatives that have changed the lives of students throughout the country and that have assisted hundreds of colleagues in the profession with improving their practice. 

To be more specific, this person is a long-term volunteer with College Horizons, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of Native American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian students succeeding in college and graduate programs. 

Always putting students first, this person took it upon themselves to organize college access events at the Hartford Public Library for several years, often working late into the evening or on the weekends to execute programming for the local students. Having recently left a position at the public charter school adjacent to the library, this was one way that the recipient could continue to offer free support to the students she had gotten to know over the years, further demonstrating her passion and commitment to making sure underrepresented students are well supported.

From 2016-2018, this person co-hosted regional meetings for Admissions Community Cultivating Equity and Peace Today, better known as ACCEPT, through which school counselors and admission representatives came together to discuss ways of promoting equity and peace through our profession. When planning these meetings, this person was especially helpful in ensuring that public school and CBO counselors were represented.

This year’s award recipient can regularly be found presenting at regional and national conferences on topics not only related to college access but also on whiteness and implicit bias. 

We are fortunate that this person has been very involved in NEACAC initiatives. A member of the IDEA Committee, this person stepped forward to help co-lead the Inclusive Policies and Practices subcommittee, which began with a focus on gender but expanded to cover inclusion for any marginalized identity after this person recommended a shift. Under their leadership, NEACAC adopted Land Acknowledgement practices, provided professionals with an online forum for conversations related to college access, and distributed a best practices document for operating during Covid. This person has served as a member of the Summer Institute faculty, and, this year, they were selected to join the very first faculty cohort for the Coming Together Conference, further recognizing their leadership and commitment to inclusion, diversity, education, and access.

This person embodies the ideals of the IDEAL award, which is why I’m proud to present this year’s IDEAL award to my friend and colleague, Jami Silver!