HR/NY Honors Rohith Rai for Energizing Poly SHRM

The Human Resources Association of New York (HR/NY) has awarded NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering alumnus Rohith Rai the 2014-2015 Harry Sherman Award for his exceptional leadership of the school’s Society for Human Resource Management student chapter, PolySHRM. The award includes a scholarship of $1,000 and the invitation to HR/NY’s annual meeting.

In May, Rai completed his graduate studies in the School of Engineering’s Organizational Behavior, Systems and Analytics (OBSA) program. In 2014, he took on the challenge of rebuilding PolySHRM when he became president. Rai immediately recruited fellow OBSA students, enlisted support from the university, and raised the club’s visibility.

Under his leadership, the club launched “Think Talks” for students to discuss issues with other students. He organized additional events and activities including professional presentations and student meetups. PolySHRM now has unprecedented participation of 25 active students largely due to Rai’s leadership. .  Rai’s crowning achievement was the Superior Merit Award from the national SHRM, bestowed upon PolySHRM for its innovative activities.

He will be honored at an OBSA mixer on July 10 to which anyone interested in learning more about the program is invited. The OBSA program focuses on giving students the expertise to enter careers related to managing people and organizations, particularly ones involved in technology and analytics. One of the first programs of its kind, OBSA addresses organizational behavior by integrating data analytics with a systems approach to traditional human resources specialties.

“There is no question that Rohith contributed greatly to the PolySHRM student chapter while preparing himself for a career as an HR professional,” Professor Hal Kaufman, who heads the OBSA program, wrote in his nominating letter. Subsequently, Rai was hired by Wall Street consulting firm Neotecra as an HR recruiter.

HR/NY presented the award at its annual meeting in June and will also highlight Rai’s work on its blog.  The Sherman award honors the memory of Harry Sherman, the first president of the chapter and major supporter of human resources education at the undergraduate and graduate levels.