Two Selected for Jack Palvino Award

Noelle Acquilano ’21 and Mikaela Huber ’21, two students in the Department of Media and Communication at St. John Fisher College, were selected to receive the 2019 Jack Palvino Excellence in Communication Award.

Given annually to two students in the department, the award recognizes undergraduates who demonstrate academic excellence and a passion for a career in communication. Recipients of the award must demonstrate a desire to pursue a career in the media and communication industries, and be a first, second, or third year student who has declared communication or media management as their major.

Acquilano, a native of Victor, New York, is a media management major with a minor in Spanish. This spring, she joined The PRIMA Group, Fisher’s student-run integrated public relations firm. In addition, she is a member of the Cardinal Courier staff, and served as its social media editor in spring 2018.

She hopes to pursue a career in international public relations, working for a nonprofit organization.

Huber, who is a media and communication major with a minor in television and film studies, has spent her two years at Fisher involved in the Cardinal Courier and CTV. Two of her film projects, “Chanceless the Rapper” and “Who Knows?” premiered at Fisher’s Student Film Festival held as part of the Rochester Fringe Festival. She is currently directing a film, “A Second Chance,” for her capstone project. Huber is also director of creative design for Fisher Players, and works as a library assistant at Lavery Library.

After graduation, the Holland, New York native hopes to focus on her passion for filmmaking, creative design, and writing.

Established by Jack Palvino ’55, the award provides a $3,100 grant to help offset the cost of tuition. Palvino is a member of the first graduating class at St. John Fisher College, and was a longtime member of its Board of Trustees. In the 1960s and 1970s, Palvino was Rochester’s No. 1 morning personality at top-40 formatted WBBF-AM. With his business partners, he formed The Lincoln Group, and began to acquire radio stations in Buffalo, Northwestern Ohio, and Rochester. Locally, his company eventually owned WHAM, WVOR, WPXY, and WHTK, until he sold the stations to CBS/Infinity and Clear Channel Communications.