HESA Student Receives NASPA Region I's Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Rachell Krell is a second year graduate student in the Higher Education in Student Affairs program at Salem State University and an Emerging Scholars Student Success Coach for Salem State’s First Year Experience Office. NASPA Region I has awarded Rachell the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Student Award in recognition of her achievement, involvement and potential for leadership as an emerging student affairs professionals. The McKeown School of Education community is proud to have one of our own be acknowledged by NASPA, a leading organization in the field of higher education and student affairs.

Dr. Vijay Kanagala, Associate Professor in the Secondary and Higher Education Department, wrote glowingly in his letter of support that “Rachell brings gifts to the academy as a genuine, conscientious, and contemplative emerging leader… She has gone above and beyond to support her students, mentees, supervisees, supervisors, and faculty by fostering authentic relationships. Her innate ethic of care compels her as a natural leader.”

In Rachell’s first year, she also served as the Graduate Assistant for the Berry Institute of Politics at Salem State. Samantha Giffen, the Assistant Director of the Berry Institute and an alum of Salem State’s HESA program, expressed that Rachell “empowered students to address an injustice that they saw on their campus and she was there to support them in navigating coalition building, strategy development, and legislative advocacy.”

Rachell’s impact at Salem State comes as little surpise given her accomplishments as an undergraduate student at Northern Arizona University, particularly as a strong voice for LGBTQIA+ students. She has continued this work in her student practicum at Tufts University’s LGBT Center, where she provides advising and support to 11 undergraduate Queer Leaders and 6 student affinity groups.

The Outstanding Graduate Student Award symbolizes the optimism and future of student affairs, and Rachell will undoubtedly continue to make her mark within the profession.