Giesselman worked the overnight shift as an emergency medical technician for a local ambulance squad.

Senior Nathan Giesselman is the sort of individual who relishes a challenge. Probably his biggest challenge is juggling a schedule that includes a full course load as an accounting major, serving as treasurer of three campus organizations, a part-time job and a weekly overnight shift as an unpaid volunteer with a local rescue squad. He manages all of this while maintaining a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA.
“It comes down to will power and a refusal to fail,” the 20-year-old Rochester native said at the conclusion of his junior year last spring. “You just tell yourself you have to do it and then you do it. You don’t let things get in your way.”

Giesselman’s academic advisor, Joshua Smith, has a slightly different take. “If there is such a thing as a model student, Nate has broken the mold,” Smith says.
Giesselman (pronounced GEE’ sul man), a Presidential Scholar, is treasurer of the Presidential Honor Society, the Pre-Law Association and Alpha Chi Rho fraternity, where he is also chair of the fund-raising committee. (“When I pledged last fall, that really improved my time-management skills,” he said.) He also finds time occasionally to tutor some of his fraternity brothers in lower-level accounting classes.

“But the most rewarding part of his week may be the overnight shift he works every Friday as an Emergency Medical Technician with the Western Turnpike Rescue Squad, located near campus. Along with providing patient care, Giesselman developed teamwork skills and poise under stress. “I’ve loved doing it,” he said.

Last summer, he worked at General Electric Company’s tax offices in Albany, where he filed returns, estimates and extensions, and prepared annual reports for its subsidiaries in plastics. He planned to continue to work part-time for GE after the fall semester began. Admitted to the University’s School of Business after only his first year at UAlbany, Giesselman hopes to go to law school, and has his eye on a career in tax law.
“I do have a competitive edge,” he said. “It just gives me a lot of pleasure to do well.”