PolySHRM earns multiple honors for another outstanding year

Members of the PolySHRM leadership team with the Superior Merit Award. Left to right: Designated President Tarik Tashkandi; Yosie Geraldino; Current President Suman Sabastin; Designated Vice President Jose Garcia; and Professor and faculty advisor Harold Kaufman.

Polytechnic’s student chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (PolySHRM) has once again earned the Superior Merit Award for its outstanding programs and activities promoting and advancing the human resource profession and the professional development of its members.

This is the 19th Superior Merit Award for PolySHRM, giving it more awards than all New York City student SHRM chapters combined.

Professor and faculty advisor Harold G. Kaufman charted PolySHRM in 1987 and has developed the organization with the help of dedicated students in Poly’s Organizational Behavior program.

“I have utilized the PolySHRM platform to encourage teamwork and to develop leadership in the chapter among a generation of students who have gone on to prove themselves through their achievements,” he says. “It is very gratifying to see how the skills and confidence learned through students’ involvement with PolySHRM are then used to great effect in attaining their career success.”

A top 10 most active chapter
PolySHRM also received the Outstanding Chapter Award for its 2007-08 initiatives, which included the International Student Forum, a bi-annual gathering of students and alumni, collaboration with organizations promoting engineering such as the Society of Women Engineers, and participation in the International Association of Human Resource Information Management.

The Outstanding Chapter Award is given to the top 10 most active chapters nationally. PolySHRM is the only chapter in New York State to receive this year’s award. “For years, the general population saw the HR function as a supportive entity to any organization,” says Tarik Tashkandi, designated 2008-09 PolySHRM president. “So did we the students. Only with dedication did we learn the true value of being an HR professional and that helped us to view the world from a new angle. By simply applying what we’ve learned and teamwork, we found ourselves among the top 10 student chapters”. Jose Garcia, designated 2008-09 vice president, said: “This year, PolySHRM has demonstrated once again that many times the greatest achievements are made by the smallest organizations. We may only have 20 members, but like Poly, it’s about quality, not quantity.”

Individual recognition
Suman Sabastin, 2007-08 PolySHRM president, received the coveted Sherman Award from the New York chapter of the Human Resource Association of New York (HRNY), a SHRM affiliate.

This is the second consecutive year that the president of PolySHRM has received the Sherman Award which is a given to a NYC student who has been the most active and supportive of his/her SHRM chapter. More members of PolySHRM have received the Sherman Award than from any other NYC SHRM chapter.

The PolySHRM leadership team will be recognized for their achievements at the 60^th annual national SHRM exposition and conference on June 21 in Chicago.

To learn more about the Society of Human Resource Management or the Organizational Behavior Program, visit www.polyshrm.org, www.ob.poly.edu or contact Professor Kaufman at hkaufman@poly.edu.