Commencement Profile: Paige Ottaviano

Paige Ottaviano graduates with a bachelor of science degree in business and marketing education and a minor in coaching while attaining a 3.84 GPA. She will receive the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence.

The native of Port Colborne, Ontario, represents the ideal of a collegiate student-athlete, excelling both in the classroom and on the fields of play. As a member of the volleyball and lacrosse teams, Ottaviano achieved SUNYAC All-Academic status from 2008 to 2012, and earned the volleyball Coach’s Award from 2009 to 2011, which recognizes the player who best exemplifies leadership and commitment.

Ottaviano accepted increasing levels of responsibility on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, rising from secretary to vice president to president. She led biweekly meetings of more than 40 Buffalo State student-athletes and organized numerous community service projects, including the successful “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” fundraising event. From 2009 to 2012, she served as organizer and director of Kids’ Night Out, a recreational program that teaches the importance of education to more than 200 inner-city youth. Always projecting a positive image for the institution, Ottaviano was chosen to represent all Buffalo State student-athletes at the 2010 NCAA Career in Sports Forum.

Ottaviano was selected to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, Alpha Lambda Delta honor society, and Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society in education. She is a recipient of the Eleanor Blackburn International Alumni Scholarship, awarded to an outstanding international sophomore student; the Kevin J. Shea Memorial Scholarship, awarded to an outstanding social studies education major; and the Frances Siu Lan Tyau International Student Scholarship, awarded to a student who promotes democratic principles in the hope of a greater peace and belief in God.

Away from campus, she volunteered with Stone’s Buddies, an organization that aids children who have cancer or are going through cancer treatment; worked with children at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo; and served as a volunteer assistant coach for the junior and senior girls volleyball teams at Lakeshore Catholic High School in Port Colborne.