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Middles States Regional Assembly honors Marjorie Torchon
Maureen McKew

On Feb. 13, Marjorie Torchon, associate director of Undergraduate Admission, was scheduled to receive the Bernard P. Ireland Recognition Award from the Middle States Regional Assembly. This award, which is the assembly's highest individual recognition, is named for Bernard P. Ireland, one of the original incorporators of the College Board and the first director of the Northeast Regional Office (the predecessor to the Middle States and New England regional assemblies).

The criteria for this award include five years in a position, a demonstrable record of service to young people in the transition from school to college, and a distinguished record for effecting changes that prove beneficial to his or her constituency.

Marjorie Torchon recently celebrated 11 years of service at Villanova. She has responsibility for Maryland, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories, and supervises the processing of applications. "We move more than 10,500 applications each year," she explained recently. "All the paper that comes through the office is handled by my area with nine wonderful people."

When applications come in the mail, information on them is scanned onto computer by a software program called NOLIJ and then routed to counselors and members of the admission committees, who read the data on line. This virtually eliminates the possibility of applications being mislaid or lost during the admission process.

Torchon first became interested in the admission process when she was an undergraduate at Providence College in Rhode Island. She worked in that institution's admission office as a student and after graduation.  However, Providence was a four-hour drive from her home town of Jersey City, N.J. She learned of an opening at Villanova (just a two-hour ride from New Jersey) and applied. She currently lives in Drexel Hill and has earned a master's degree in human service administration from Villanova.

In addition to her admission responsibilities, Torchon is a busy volunteer, assisting high school students in Philadelphia as they prepare to apply for college. She gives presentations on essay writing and college choice. "In Philadelphia, the ratio of students to guidance counselor is 500 to one," she pointed out. When a student comes to a counselor for personal help, their conversation is not likely to include how to file a college application process. This is where I try to help them, explaining the process and the importance of completing an application correctly." She also volunteers in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Torchon is delighted to receive the award for a career she enjoys and for volunteer work that she loves. "I just enjoy this, so winning an award for it is really nice."

Michael M. Gaynor, director of University Admission, has worked with Marjorie Torchon for 11 of his 21 years at Villanova. "Marjorie is certainly deserving of this recognition," he stated recently. "I subscribe to the adage that attitude is everything. Marjorie embodies this maxim with her positive spirit and 'can do' approach to life. She has never disappointed me. How many people do we know of whom we can say this?"