Extra Effort Awards – September 3, 2020
Pete Belk, Director, Admissions & Recruitment – Nominated by Janice Blansit
This week, JCAE was helping a DACA student enroll at JCCC. Her status caused out-of-state tuition rates to be applied, even though she had attended HS in Johnson County for 2.5 years then completed a GED with JCAE. Since she could not afford the higher rates, we asked Pete to consider whether the student’s circumstances would meet the regulatory requirements for local rates. As always, Pete was quick to respond and was open to the argument that the student was indeed eligible for the lower rates, subject to completion of IISS documentation. Hooray! Kudos, too, to Kim Steinmetz and to Valerie Jones for their support in advocating for this student!
Megan Bukaty, Administrative Assistant, Health Occupations – Nominated by Zach Gredlics
Megan went above and beyond to assist the Continuing Education Healthcare program submit for course approvals to the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services (KDADS). Without her effort and time, we would not be able to have gained the approvals required to offer courses in 2020 and 2021, and she was extremely accommodating in doing so!
David-Mark Campbell, Bookstore Clerk, Bookstore – Nominated by Ashawnte Thompson
David assisted a student with a severe anxiety disorder and her grandparents in the middle of our busy back to school period. The grandparents followed up with an email, expressing how difficult life has been for her because it is very difficult for her to cope in a social setting and how David made her feel comfortable enough not only to shop but want to return to campus again. This was a great introduction to the college and helped her feel welcome regardless of her condition. The best part about it was David didn’t even think anything of it. He said that he was just doing his job. Great job David!
Dessa Crum, International and Immigrant Student Coordinator – Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
Dessa was instrumental in IISS moving our orientation online. She worked to build our orientation in Canvas and organized all the recording sessions. She also made the orientation as fun as possible. Dessa did a wonderful job of transitioning our welcome to a different modality. Even though we’re not face-to-face with students, they will still feel welcome!
Rabeh Ghadiri, International and Immigrant Student Coordinator – Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
We have had so many changes this year… The pandemic has impacted new students the most as have the regulations. Rabeh has been steady and hardworking through this all. She has worked tirelessly to support new admissions for students. We still don’t have final numbers yet, but she has done tremendous work with extreme obstacles to her work. The numbers we do have are impressive. Rabeh represents the best of JCCC. She always works hard, keeps going, and has hope for our students. Thank you Rabeh!
Rachel Haynes, Technical Training Coordinator, Staff & Organizational Development – Nominated by Karen Martley
Congratulations on a wonderful Fall PDD. I specifically want to thank you for the online schedule. The format was easy to use and easy to access. I appreciated the opportunity to view the recordings of the sessions I missed. Thank you!
Susan Hoffman, Coordinator, Staff & Organizational Development – Nominated by Karen Martley
Virtual PDD was great. Thank you for making sure we recognized all the Awards Luncheon winners since we did not have the luncheon in May and Service Pin recipients by creating two videos.
Lisa Parra, Chair of the Reading Department – Nominated by Dianna Rottinghaus
Lisa has worked tirelessly to manage the complicated tasks of moving developmental reading instruction both hybrid and online, maintaining the integrity of campus-wide assistance through virtual Reading Specialist services, relocating our department offices, relocating our Reading Specialist physical space, and moving the Reading Lab. She has also had to streamline last-minute interim placement guidelines without the AccuPlacer placement tool. She has done all these tasks while her office has been packed up for the moves and has maintained a positive attitude and leadership for the department.
Marilyn Pickrel, FA Accounting Specialist, Financial Aid – Nominated by Debbie Brewer
Marilyn worked diligently to process all staff tuition reduction forms accurately and quickly so employees and their dependents would have their payments posted by the payment deadline. She worked extra hours for all of us. Thank you for going the extra mile during this time!
Jocelyn Devaney-Prasad, Student Support Specialist, IISS – Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
Jocelyn is tremendous support for IISS. She has taken on a new process that is very intense. She has a high volume of requests in the months leading up to a semester. Jocelyn managed her workload with calm and consistency. She has done a wonderful job and we’ve had more contact and support to students going through this process than ever. Jocelyn is a great employee and we’re so happy she’s celebrated one year in our office. She has been a positive, kind, and steady teammate. She works very hard and is the best researcher I’ve ever seen. She also keeps a level head when we encounter new documents or systems. She is always one to use resources and make an informed decision to support the enrollment of our students.
Stu Shafer, Professor – Nominated by Becky Risler
I nominate Stu Shafer for the extra effort award for his dedication to making sure a grant request was submitted for the federal CARES Act fund. These funds are aimed at for-profit, not-for-profit, educational and local government entities in several categories to entities that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A glitch in the online submission system had him pushing the amount button request 100,000 times!
MargE Shelly, Assoc. Dean of Enrollment Management, Student Services – Nominated by Sherri Hanysz
For the past 5 months, MargE has been the true leader in Student Services. She is always working tirelessly to ensure that her departments (Admission, IISS and Records/Registration/Veteran Services) have all the tools we need to work remotely and in-person. We all know she has our best interest in mind when making decisions that will work for all of us. Thank you, MargE, for your outstanding leadership skills.
Kellie Snell, Financial Aid Advisor, Financial Aid – Nominated by Debbie Brewer
Kellie had a student on Friday afternoon that could not get her ID card to work to purchase books. Kellie assisted the student and walked with the student up and down the stairs 3 times attempting to help solve the problem. She ended up at the Bursars office with the student. She did not push the student off on another department or send the student on their way confused. She stuck with them until the problem was solved and the student was able to get their books. This is the kind of service that all students get when they work with Kellie and financial aid.
Krystal Anton, Coordinator Zero Waste, Sustainability Initiatives
Kristy Howell, Coordinator Sustainability Education & Engagement, Sustainability Initiatives
– Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
We had a furry visitor in COM. We wanted to ensure this little friend could get back to life on the outside. We called Kristy and Krystal to support! They came, assessed the situation, and got the little friend outside safely. It was great to see them working and they did such a good job. I was impressed with their hands-on approach!
Farrell Jenab, Director, Faculty Development
Elaine Sinn, Coordinator, Faculty Development – Nominated by Karen Martley
Thank you for all your efforts to program a wonderful virtual Fall PDD. The format worked great and the feedback has been positive. It was one of the best ones I have ever attended.
Tim Poholsky, ATS Support Technician, Academic Technology Services
James Drone, Senior Enterprise Desktop Engineer, Academic Technology Services
– Nominated by Elisa Waldman
Many thanks to Tim Poholsky and James Drone for outfitting 12 CE employees who needed laptops and other hardware to work effectively from home. We are looking forward to the many new efficiencies that these new setups will bring as we enter the Fall season.
Aaron Fry, Senior Enterprise Desktop Engineer, Academic Technology Services
Joseph Petis, ATS Support Technician, Academic Technology Services
Adrian Swan, Manager Multimedia Services, Audio Visual Services
– Nominated by Brad Staupp
With many changes needed for the start of the fall semester – LIB 359 was recently requested to be changed from an English computer lab over to a computer reading lab and adjusted for proper social distancing with limited time. This required some quick thinking, removing of computer equipment and re-arranging of quite a bit of furniture, Withing a few hours, Adrian, Aaron, and Joseph made quick work of it all and was able to re-make a very large computer lab into a proper socially distanced usable computer lab once again! Thanks, guys, for the can-do attitude and quick thinking!
Traci Jensen, Non-Credit Instructor, Adult Education & Literacy
Cheryl Brown, Non-Credit Instructor, Adult Education & Literacy
Valerie Jones, JCAE Transition Coach, Adult Education & Literacy
Caylin Smith, Success Advocate, Orientation & New Student Retention
Brent Haverkamp, Coordinator, Orientation & New Student Retention
Steve Franklin, Coordinator Student Basic Needs, Student Activities
Kim Steinmetz, Program Director, International & Immigrant Student Services
Ashley Jost, Coordinator Financial Aid Communications Manager, Student Financial Aid
Cindy Kleinsorge, Coordinator Financial Aid-Scholarship, Student Financial Aid
Alex Wells, Counselor, Counseling
– Nominated by Leslie Dykstra
JCAE held its first Summer Transition Class to help JCAE students transition from our program into college classes for August. This group lead by instructors Traci Jensen and Cheryl Brown did an incredible job of supporting our students through the enrollment process.
Moving forward, the virtual Extra Effort Awards will be announced bi-weekly. The virtual Extra Effort Award nomination form can be found at https://blogs.jccc.edu/staffdev/awards/extra-effort/