“Some of the most impactful growth at Quinnipiac has been in the improved relationship between Quinnipiac and the town of Hamden,” Mayor Lauren Garrett said. “The Hamden community has benefited from President Olian’s strategic vision of being a good neighbor through numerous partnerships. The Quinnipiac School of Business in partnership with ConnCORP formed the ConnCORP/Quinnipiac Community Entrepreneurship Academy and Clinics. They also host the Big Event, where they do a lot of cleanup and gardening in the spring. It's wonderful.” 

“Quinnipiac accounting students offer free tax assistance. Occupational therapy students help at the Keefe Community Center benefiting our community while students gain practical experience,” the mayor added. “And President Olian co-chairs the AdvanceCT board of directors, an organization charged with recruiting businesses to Connecticut. Over the last few years, Quinnipiac has provided funding for ice skates at Louis Astorino rink so we can bring back public skating, summer concerts and fireworks, middle school sports, help fund renovations to our high school tennis courts that our engineering office is currently designing, scholarships for town residents and the Quinnipiac presidential fellowship program.” 

Garrett noted that just the evening before Olian was honored, the town saw a tangible benefit to the relationship Olian forged with Hamden. 

“Just last night, the town received an award from Sustainable CT for being a climate leader, and it's due to this cooperation because our QU fellows helped us to qualify for the points that we receive from the Sustainable CT program,” Garrett said. “They help us gather all the documents, upload them and we are now climate leaders in Connecticut because of our partnership.” 

Olian said the commitment the university has to the community is core to who we are today. 

“What we try to do is make sure that our students are not just schooled in their professions, but they're schooled in being civically engaged residents who are responsible neighbors, but also are going to be contributing to the communities in which they live as responsible residents and as future community leaders,” Olian said. “We are so proud that when we send them out into the community, and some of them live in the community, they have become great neighbors, and we hardly ever hear anything but compliments from the neighbors.” 

She said Quinnipiac is committed to the well-being of our community. 

“We always say, as goes Hamden so goes Quinnipiac and as goes Quinnipiac, so goes Hamden. We are totally co-dependent to each other, on each other and we lift each other because of this great partnership in thriving together and in making sure that we care for each other.” 

She praised Bethany Zemba, vice president for strategy and community relations and chief of staff, for her work in strengthening the university’s relationship with our local communities. 

“I would like to include Bethany in this award, since she actually deserves more than I did,” Olian said. “Many of these initiatives, and there are many more, start with Bethany, derived for her passion for community impact.”  

Quinnipiac’s commitment to the community spans back nearly a century. 

“I want to mention that Quinnipiac was actually launched with community relations in our DNA,” Olian said. “Founded back in the Great Depression, and from the get-go, we offered free evening classes to the unemployed. And that commitment, that community commitment, is core to who we are today.”  

It’s why one of the university’s four strategic pillars is to nurture and positively impact internal, local and community partners and global communities. 

“We view our educational purpose to include the civic engagement, the preparation of our students and graduates, to be civically engaged and responsible community members every day of the rest of their lives, and it starts here with their roles in the community,” Olian said. “I am really honored by this award, which I accept with pride on behalf of every member of the Bobcat family. Thank you for being such terrific partners. We will continue every day to seek opportunities in which we can lift the well-being of the communities in which we live through partnership with each of you.”