Sandra Crigger, retired program support technician in the Department of Management in the Pamplin College of Business, has received the 2012 Staff Career Achievement Award. Crigger retired in 2012 after 36 years of service to the university.

Created in 2011 to recognize retiring staff members, the Staff Career Achievement Award is presented annually to up to five individuals who have distinguished themselves through exemplary performance and service during their university career. Nominees must have served a minimum of 10 years at Virginia Tech. Each recipient is awarded a $1,000 cash prize.

Prior to joining the department, Crigger was employed in electrical engineering, geosciences, and materials engineering. She began her tenure in the management department in 1984 and served as administrative assistant for four department heads. As one nominator said, “Sandy was unquestionably the rock that each department head relied on for her loyalty, dedication, and expertise.”

“Sandy took pride in continuously developing her skills, so that she was, in all the time that we knew her, a walking compendium of policies and procedures,” another nominator said.

In 1988, Crigger completed the New River Community College supervisory development curriculum and was awarded the Career Studies Certificate, graduating with a perfect grade point average of 4.0. She also earned a Virginia Tech Certificate in Office Software Skills. Crigger received the President’s Award for Excellence in 1997 and the department’s Staff Excellence Award in 2011.

In addition to her duties as administrative assistant, Crigger volunteered to take on the role of chief academic advisor in the department in 2005. At the college level, Crigger volunteered to assist with new student summer orientation, was a member of the Pamplin Advising Forum, and in 2009, she received the Provost’s Advising Excellence Award.

“When Sandy retired, she left a major void in our department,” a nominator said. “She was universally admired and respected for her graciousness, her knowledge, and her expertise. She was a wonderful role model for all of our staff.”

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

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