Jendian Awarded "Provost's Award for Faculty Service"
Staff Report
This past May, Dr. Matthew A. Jendian was awarded the “Provost’s Award for Faculty Service,” one of five faculty awards presented by Dr. Jeronima Echeverria, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, to honor those faculty who set new standards of excellence at California State University, Fresno. In receiving this award, Dr. Jendian was recognized for his outstanding service to the university community and the community-at-large. He has been involved in a variety of service activities including exemplary contributions to his discipline, faculty governance and university committees, service learning pedagogy, community activities, and other similar achievements.
Community engagement is something that Dr. Jendian lives and breathes, and it is something he has learned from others, including his mentors and family members. His work developing and directing the American Humanics (AH) Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management and Leadership at Fresno State has helped form and sustain partnerships in the community and produced one of the nation’s leading AH programs.
“This award is important to me because of what it stands for—providing leadership in service for others,” commented Jendian, “This is the definition of humanics—‘educating the whole person in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service to others.’ As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said, ‘We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service relationship to humanity.’ Being presented with an award like this reminds me and others of the importance of being involved in service.”
The high value Dr. Jendian places on community partnerships is at the heart of his teaching, research, and professional service. He effectively communicates with his students and shares his passion for community engagement. He is known for reminding students that “knowledge is not power, merely potential power, and that knowledge becomes powerful when it’s acted upon.”
Dr. Jendian, a native of Fresno and a 1991 graduate of Fresno State who majored in Sociology and completed minor degrees in Psychology and Armenian Studies, earned his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Sociology from the University of Southern California. He has been part of the sociology faculty at Fresno State since 1995 and earned tenure and promotion to associate professor in August 2007. He and his wife, Pamela, reside in Clovis with their two sons, Joshua and Nicholas.
In May 2006, Dr. Jendian was the recipient of two university-wide faculty awards at Fresno State—the “Spirit of Service Award,” presented by the Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning, and the “Outstanding Advisor Award,” presented by the Campus Advisors’ Network in acknowledgment of his role on campus as a “key to student success.” Dr. Jendian serves as a board member for several local nonprofit organizations, including the Fresno Nonprofit Advancement Council, Fresno Housing Alliance, and Relational Culture Institute. This year, he was elected chair of the national American Humanics Directors Association and serves on the National Board of Directors of American Humanics, Inc. Dr. Jendian is also the author of the recently published book, Becoming American, Remaining Ethnic: The Case of Armenian-Americans in Central California (NY: LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2008).
Dr. Matthew Jendian with Provost Dr. Jeri Echeverria
October 2008 • Vol. 30, No. 1 (103)
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