Chilson receives Student Advocate Award

Alfred State College recently presented David Chilson, an instructional support assistant in the Building Trades Department, with the Student Advocate Award.

Each year, students have the opportunity to nominate an employee who has had a profound impact on them for the award. Chilson was passionately nominated by a student who credits him with helping her to feel welcome at Alfred State and in her program. Chilson, she said, was “the first face of Alfred State I encountered when I arrived at the Wellsville campus for my first tour nearly three years ago.”

“His sly sense of humor, his generosity with his time, and his open-arms persona told me almost everything I needed to know about the college and whether I would feel I belonged well before I met the faculty who would teach me,” she said. “Then, in my first semester, (Chilson) proved time and again that a smiling face, a quick joke, or even just a friendly hello can be, to the receiver, a much-needed boost to anyone working well outside of their comfort zone.”

Chilson originally joined the Alfred State staff in 1972. While he has retired several times over the years, he has also returned each time because of his love for working with students in the HVAC and building trades labs. He is a lifetime member of the Belmont Fire Company and the American Legion Post 808, and is a past commander of this Legion Post.