L. Stacey Arrambide, a 1997 and 1999 Sam Houston State University graduate who

rose from an intern to vice president of statistics and data management for SYNERGOS

in only eight years is the first person to be named SHSU Alumni Association's

Distinguished Young Alumnus.

The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Arrambide, a first generation college student, turned down athletic scholarships from larger universities to come to SHSU to remain close to his father.  There, he excelled in the classroom as well as on the field, earning a starting position as quarterback until an injury caused him to take a lesser role on the team.

“I always admired the fact that he followed up on his obligation to the team, despite the fact that he probably would never play again,” said Jaimie Hebert, College of Arts and Sciences dean who taught Arrambide and nominated him for the DYA award. “But, my greatest admiration was for the way he created successes in every other part of his life.”

While a graduate student, he contacted the owner and chief executive officer of SYNERGOS, a company in The Woodlands that handles statistical analyses of data for medical researchers, and convinced her to allow him to serve as a summer intern. By the end of the summer, he had made such an impression on her that she offered him a permanent position. Arrambide also convinced her to pay for his school and buy him equipment to work from Huntsville.

After graduate school, Arrambide was offered a doctoral fellowship at Baylor University but he opted to stay with SYNERGOS as a statistician. Within eight years, he had worked his way up to vice president of statistics and data management.

“There is no finer example, in my opinion, of a young man who has taken an opportunity, the one best suited for his family, exercised personal initiative through good and bad times, and created the success that he has in his life,” Hebert said.

Arrambide graduated Cum Laude in 1997 with his bachelor's degree in mathematics and in 1999 with his master's degree in statistics.

He and his wife, Janelle, have two children, son Lou Elijah, “Eli,” and daughter Maya Marie.