New Britain resident receives NVCC’s Distinguished Student Award

New Britain resident Lisa Cantoni has been named the winner of NVCC’s 2007 Anna-Margaret Fabisiak Distinguished Student Award, which was established in the name of an NVCC alumnus who distinguished herself for combined academic and extracurricular accomplishments.

WATERBURY (May 23, 2007) — During Lisa Cantoni’s three years at Naugatuck Valley Community College, her lowest grade in a course was an A-minus. And she only received that grade once.

“It was my first semester,” said the 23-year-old New Britain resident. “And after that, I took two other courses from that professor just to prove to myself that I could earn an A from him. And I did.”

Cantoni, who was born and raised in Prospect, will graduate Thursday, May 24, with an associate degree in liberal arts and a 3.98 grade point average. Perhaps even more remarkably, this achievement comes five years after she had to drop out of Holy Cross High School in Waterbury two months shy of graduation due to a struggle with severe depression, a medical condition she has since overcome.

Her extraordinary academic accomplishments, together with her extracurricular endeavors and her inspirational triumph over adversity, led to Cantoni being named the winner of NVCC’s 2007 Anna-Margaret Fabisiak Distinguished Student Award. The award was established almost 20 years ago in the name of an NVCC alumnus who distinguished herself for combined academic and extracurricular accomplishments.

“Lisa’s ability to exceed in a college environment is superior not only because of her quest for knowledge but through her enthusiasm to learn,” said Lisa Kaufman, an assistant professor of communication, who nominated Cantoni for the award.

Cantoni’s extracurricular activities included being president of NVCC’s Ambassador’s Club, which goes out to promote the college to area high school students, coaching softball and tutoring middle and high school students. She is also a member of “Who’s Who Among American College Students” and Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year college students

Cantoni hopes to someday become a children’s book editor. She plans to go on to study American literature at Western Connecticut State University at Danbury on full scholarship, having also received one of NVCC’s three President-to-President Scholarships in 2007. The scholarship is based on academic achievement and covers full tuition for the final two years at a four-year Connecticut campus.

As the Distinguished Student Award winner, Cantoni will join other speakers on the podium at NVCC’s spring commencement ceremony May 24. More than 500 NVCC students will be awarded associate degrees and certificates during the college’s commencement ceremony, which will begin at 6 p.m. in Parking Lot C at Kinney Hall on the college’s campus, located at 750 Chase Parkway off exit 18 on Interstate 84.

NVCC serves more than 10,000 students from 35 communities across western Connecticut from Litchfield to Waterbury to Seymour to Southbury and Danbury.