Arrambide Named First Distinguished Young Alumni

Stacey Arrambide

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 has been named the SHSU Alumni Association’s first Distinguished Young Alumni.

Arrambide will receive his award during the Distinguished Alumni Award gala, held during SHSU’s homecoming weekend Oct. 13.

The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Arrambide, a first generation college student, turned down athletic scholarships from such universities as Tulane and the Naval Academy to come to SHSU in order 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 not only taught Arrambide but 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 in the statistics program, 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, Hebert said.

Not only did he receive a job, but Arrambide convinced the CEO to pay for his school and buy him the equipment to work from Huntsville while keeping him on the payroll.

“I was simply floored that anyone, let alone a graduate student, could close such a deal,” Hebert said.

After graduate school, Arrambide was offered a full-ride fellowship to work on his doctorate at Baylor University but 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.

“It is really no surprise that he is so successful and no surprise that he is with the same company,” Hebert said. “He is one of the most loyal and enterprising people that I have ever met.

“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. “That we, as a university, can claim to have laid the foundation for his success is simply an honor.”

Arrambide graduated Cum Laude in 1997 with his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a minor in statistics and in 1999 with his master’s degree in statistics. He currently serves on the board of directors for the SHSU Kat Pack.

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

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Sept. 14, 2006
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