2026 Dan L. Heinlen Award

For Jill Biblow ’93, Ohio State wasn’t just the right college choice — it was the start of a lifelong commitment to the university she loves.

Step into her office at Syosset High School in Long Island, New York, where Biblow has served as a guidance counselor for 30 years, and her Buckeye pride is impossible to miss.

“The whole office is covered in Ohio State,” Biblow says. “Pillows. Signs. Brutus is all over everything and anything.” In that spirited space – and at college recruitment fairs across New York — she has inspired hundreds of students to apply to Ohio State.

It's hard to imagine now, but Biblow hadn't even heard of Ohio State when she was growing up on Long Island. It wasn’t until a friend’s father (an enthusiastic Buckeye fan) suggested she apply that she actually began to explore the possibility of attending.

One campus visit was all it took. Biblow explored the Oval, toured Ohio Stadium and connected with students. “This, in my mind, was exactly what I had seen in movies,” she says. “I told my mom, ‘I’m done. I don’t need to see any other school. This is where I want to be.’”

Biblow enrolled and thrived over the next four years. “I truly believe there is no greater place to attend college,” she says.

Today, that’s the message she shares with prospective students and their families. As a member of Buckeye Alumni Recruitment (BAR), she represents Ohio State at college fairs throughout Long Island and the Tri-State area. She highlights the university’s strong academics, vibrant student life and scholarship opportunities for out-of-state students while answering questions from families.

Biblow supports Ohio State in many ways, interviewing candidates for the Homecoming Court, mentoring young alumni and participating in the Alumni Club of New York City. She has also served on Ohio State’s school counselor advisory board.

Volunteering is how she stays connected to the university that shaped her life, she says. “It’s my way of giving back. I don’t have millions to donate. This is what I can do.”

The Buckeye spirit has become a family tradition. This spring her daughter, Arden Goldberg, graduated from Ohio State. Together, their names are engraved on a brick outside Ohio Stadium.

“If you could only see my mother’s face every time we visit our brick at Ohio Stadium,” Goldberg says, “you’d know that it’s a reminder she is home.”