Celeste Viger, director of economic development for U.S. Representative Tom Allen of Maine, was named Alumna of the Year for Saint Michael's College at ceremonies held during Reunion June 7. Ms. Viger, a 1993 graduate of Saint Michael's, was described as "a go-to person for Saint Michael's since her graduation."
An English major at Saint Michael's, Ms. Viger was active in student government and community service work while a student. She has since served as director of government relations for Sweetser, and has been director for community relations at Verizon-Maine, as well has having participated in Teach for America, attended the Muskie Institute of Public Affairs, and served as finance director of Governor Angus Wilson's re-election campaign in 1999.
Ms. Viger is also a whole-hearted volunteer in an organization she created called Maine Reads, a statewide non-profit focused on improving literacy throughout the state. A great volunteer for Saint Michael's, Ms. Viger served as chair for the Saint Michael's Club of Portland and on the college's Alumni Board of Directors.
In supporting Saint Michael's, Ms. Viger followed her father, Dr. Leopold Viger, who graduated from Saint Michael's in 1947, her sister Michelle, who graduated from the college in 1983 and her brother Joe who graduated in 1985.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 366 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last seven years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report rankings.