Perry Calce, 30-year staff member: “Make your work a passion.” | Photos by Concordia University
As coordinator of Academic Programs and Curriculum Development, Perry Calce is responsible for admissions, recruitment, academic advising, internship, alumni relations, and program development for the School of Community and Public Affairs.
He also coordinates the school’s three programs: Community and Public Affairs and Policy Studies, First Peoples Studies, and Community Economic Development.
There’s a lot on his plate, but for Calce, it isn’t just a job. “Working closely with our students and getting to know them and see them mature and succeed is a passion and a mission,” he says.
Calce credits the late Hubert Guindon with his work philosophy. Guindon was one of the founders of Concordia’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Calce’s former professor and, most pertinently, the one who hired him.
Guindon once told Calce that “fond memories are always bound up with students: students who fearfully enter the world of ideas, whose intellectual confidence has to be built up, and who, once developed, are eternally grateful to those who encouraged them to entertain that calling.”
Calce agrees, saying that that “the pleasure of getting a call, an e-mail or a visit from former students and seeing their continued attachment to our school and knowing that you’ve played a small but a positive part in their journey” is among his most rewarding experiences at Concordia.
Over the past three decades, Calce has seen the tremendous growth of Concordia and the immense improvements to its infrastructure, and also how it has become an institution of choice for students, faculty and staff.
While acknowledging its rich history, Calce is also optimistic about Concordia’s future. For new employees, he says that achieving career longevity is possible. “Make your work a passion, or at the very least something you enjoy and it will never seem like work,” he says. “Most importantly, always remember that we are here for the students and without them we wouldn’t exist.”
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