Rochesterian honored with SUNY Chancellor’s Award

Christol Wright, a Rochester native and multi-degree student at Empire State University has received the recipient of the 2026 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence.

The award is the highest honor granted to a SUNY student and celebrates exemplary achievements in academics, leadership, civics and service, or performing arts. Four students at Empire State University received the award this year.

“We are so proud of these extraordinary SUNY Empire students for all they have accomplished at the university and beyond,” says Lisa Vollendorf, the university’s president. “Their deep commitment to service is already making a meaningful impact in our communities. I look forward to seeing their many achievements still to come.”

“This recognition motivates me to continue striving to uphold professionalism, as well as strong ethical and moral integrity, both as a student and as a member of my community,” Wright says. “It also inspires me to keep supporting and uplifting others.” 

Wright, the only Rochester awardee of SUNY’s online university, first received a bachelor’s in community and human services from the school in 2009.

She then completed a host of academic achievements, including a master’s level health care management certificate program at SUNY Empire, an addiction counseling degree from Monroe Community College, and a development disability certificate program at SUNY Brockport.

Wright recently completed her master’s of social and public policy after returning to SUNY Empire. She is currently enrolled in a master’s of social work program at Nazareth University.

During Wright’s time at SUNY Empire, she was an active member of the school. She served in the Empire State Service Corps program, which worked with the university’s Office of Health and Wellness to provide resources to students experiencing food insecurity. She was also employed as both a substance abuse counselor and an AmeriCorps VISTA member with the Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative. 

“Attending SUNY Empire has been one of the greatest rewards of my life,” she says. “Earning two degrees from this college has affirmed that I made the right decision to pursue higher education.” 

Wright’s interest in creating equity through social work, health and wellness, and support for people with disabilities comes from her own personal circumstances. As a young person growing up in poverty, she noticed how prejudices based on socioeconomic status or race could be responsible for gaps in services.

Advocating for school services for her two children with disabilities was another impactful experience that led Wright to decide she wanted to help improve the system. More diverse voices and backgrounds will naturally help improve providers, she believes.

“When people are not really knowledgeable about your culture or your situation, sometimes there can be miscommunication and misunderstanding,” Wright says. “When I was growing up, I had some advocates, but I didn’t have a host of individuals from the same ethnicity or from a background that would understand poverty in that same way and would understand, ‘OK, we need tutors to get these reading levels on track.’”

While she believes overarching policy work is important for improving services, she is drawn to ground-level work and feels it is where she thrives. Wright points to her work with the unhoused community as an example.

“I think the more that community works together, the more that we won’t stop. We won’t think, ‘Okay, well, we just housed 1,500 people. Although there’s still 20,000 over here that needs to be housed, we’re going to stop here because 1,500 are housed,’” she says. “No, we want that work to continue.”

Given her current educational success, it is ironic that Wright did not graduate from high school on time after failing an exam by one point. Reflecting on the embarrassing experience now, Wright says it was due to a lack of investment and hard work, as well as self-doubt about her own ability.

“I used to think, ‘Wow, (my siblings) are so smart. Why am I so stupid? I’m not getting it. Why are they getting it?’ I used to think like that,” says Wright. “My dad used to always encourage me. He used to always say, ‘Hey, what you put into it is what you’re going to get out of it,’ and that ‘education is something that no one is able to take away from you once you have it.’”

Wright credits her own resilience after that morale-shattering experience, and adds that supportive instructors and mentors were instrumental to her success. She hopes that her achievements can serve as inspiration for others in the future. 

“Being able to win the Chancellor’s Award with others recognizing that I’ve come a long way as a strong individual that has kept faith and continued to strive, it is amazing for me,” she says. “I think I’m able to be that role model who can give others hope and let them know, we struggle, but we’re also able to strive, work hard, and make life better.”

 Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.

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