From Malaysia to Masonic (and beyond)
A Rohingya refugee naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2025, Nurhaliza Syukur ’26 was born and raised in Malaysia, coming to the United States in 2019 with aspirations of a career in medicine.
Utica College Receives Excellence Award for Student Success Initiatives
By Leah Easton ‘24, PR Intern
Utica College has received the Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Award for strengthening student success initiatives. The award ceremony recognized institutions that demonstrate exceptional work in student success through initiatives such as student persistence and completion, and serving at-risk students.
This award was presented by Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL), an organization that aims to help higher education institutions with enrollment, student success and fundraising. Utica was nominated for the award by RNL staff, and determined to show exceptional achievement in student success amongst other nominees.
Jeffery Gates, Senior Vice President for Student Life and Enrollment Management, accepted the award during a webinar last week.
“I was very proud to accept the 2021 Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Award,” Gates said after the ceremony. “It was great to be recognized alongside LSU and Loyola University New Orleans as the recruitment and marketing winners this year. This was on the heels of an award from 3 Enrollment Marketing Inc. on the Admissions / Recruitment side of the house, now this retention award from RNL for Student Success. My deepest thanks, appreciation and admiration for our entire team,” Gates added.
While Utica College already had a strong retention plan in place to serve its students, the college elevated its efforts by putting re-yield and re-enrollment strategies in place to increase retention and persistence. Student success measures such as virtual advising and an academic recovery program that saw 73 percent of the participating students increase their GPAs from fall to spring semester demonstrated dynamic innovation, RNL officials said.
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