2018 Milli Award winners consider how the future will view millennials
George Bernard Shaw”™s celebrated lament about youth being wasted on the young was happily contradicted during the fourth annual Milli Awards ceremony held Nov. 13 at 1133 Westchester Ave. in White Plains.
Sponsored by Westfair Communications, the parent company of the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals and WAG magazine, the Milli Awards serve as a way to recognize standout local young professionals aged 21 to 34. As part of the ceremony, the award winners were asked to give their thoughts on how they would like future generations to view the millennials”™ contribution to the business world and the wider society.
Mark Anthony Abile of Greenwich Hospital said he hoped the next demographic generation wave ”“ Generation Z, defined as people born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s ”“ would consider millennials as both an inspiration for and a partner in their endeavors. “I know that if we all work together, we can make this world a better place,” he said.
Grace Battalgia of Open Door Family Medical Center wanted the millennials to be seen as resourceful, passionate and visionary members of society. “Whether it be our encounters with obstacles, be it personal or global, we really focus on solutions and strategies and focus on actions to making changes that we need in the world.”
Arnold Escandon of Tompkins Mahopac Bank hoped that tomorrow”™s professionals would see his generation as not being afraid to take chances. “Future generations can look up on their iPhone 28+ and can see that we millennials were an ambitious generation,” he said.
Vanessa Guzman of Montefiore Health System acknowledged that millennials took advantage of multiple technology platforms that were not available to their predecessors, but she cautioned that there was more to this digital era than endless selfies and precocious hashtags. Instead, she stated that technology gave millennials “awareness of our true identity to be shared with future generations, our families, our colleagues.”
Angie Kim of Purchase College said that some members of the previous Generation X were unhappy with millennials, viewing the demographic as “narcissistic and selfish” and believing that “we apparently ruined everything from diamonds to chain restaurants ”“ I think yesterday I saw an article that said we ruined American cheese.” But Kim added that Generation Z “looks up to us, believing that we have strong values,” and she defined millennials as “change agents and the ones who are really paving the way for a better future.”
The 2018 Milli Award winners were:
Ӣ Mark Anthony Abile, Greenwich Hospital
Ӣ Ariella Arias, Gregory Sahagian & Son Awning Co.
Ӣ Grace Battaglia, Open Door Family Medical Center
Ӣ Arnold Escandon, Tompkins Mahopac Bank
Ӣ Daniel Guiney, ZRM Brokerage
Ӣ Vanessa Guzman, Montefiore Health System
Ӣ Lauren Kemp, Morgan Stanley
Ӣ Angie Kim, Purchase College, State University of New York
Ӣ Marc Koch, J.P. Morgan Securities
Ӣ Emily Larkin, The Community Fund of Darien
Ӣ Yesher Larsen, Aquarion Water Co.
Ӣ Marla Lewis, Deloitte & Touche
Ӣ Paul Lippolis, Lippolis Electric
Ӣ Kelsie Mania, Westfair Communications
Ӣ Mitchell Mirtil, Westchester Medical Center
Ӣ Amanda Paktinat, American Red Cross of Metro New York North
Ӣ Lindsay Rinehart, Brody and Associates
Ӣ Megan Sullivan, The Local Moms Network
Ӣ Britt Tavello Melitsanopoulos, Stew LeonardӪs
Ӣ Chris Walters, J.P. Morgan Securities
Click on photos below to enlarge:
The sponsors of this year”™s event were, in alphabetical order: Aquarion Water Co., Blue Buffalo, Buzz Creators, Deloitte, Greater Hudson Bank, Greenwich Hospital, JP Morgan Securities, Lippolis Electric, Mahopac Bank, The McIntyre Group, Neiman Marcus, Oasis Day Spa, Tompkins Mahopac Bank, UConn School of Business and Val”™s Putnam Wines and Liquors.