Extra Effort Awards – April 10, 2020

Pete Belk, Director, Admission and Recruitment – Nominated by MargE Shelley
Thanks to Pete for handling all the mail for the Enrollment Management areas by going to campus and disseminating mail weekly. This is in no way a small job for which Pete volunteered.  In addition, Pete has worked through technology and access issues for both students and staff. Can you imagine handling recruitment during this unusual time?  Pete has worked with marketing and his recruitment team to reach out to current students and potential students so that JCCC can continue to grow.

Jane Byrne, Administrative Assistant – Professional Education, Life & Leisure, and Summer Youth Enrichment – Nominated by Tim Frenzel
Jane worked with students, instructors, CE registration, CE Operations, Ed Tech and Staff Development to reschedule, move to zoom, or cancel 110 courses in our department that were affected by the school closing.

Hillary Callahan, Administrative Assistant – CAIT – Nominated by Cheryl Coon
Hillary has been working on a superior level with individual students to get them ready for taking our technology courses virtually.  Her communication, organization, follow-up and attention to details are keeping us on track.  Hillary has been kind, patient and helpful with all the student questions and there are many!

Cheryl Coon, Program Coordinator – CAIT – Nominated by Jake Akehurst
Since notification of campus closure on Thursday, March 12, Cheryl has transitioned Continuing Education Computer Applications & IT training course to virtual delivery. This is no small task on extremely short notice. The level of communication with our instructors, students and IS support staff is phenomenal. Although some students have transferred to later dates, refunds have been limited. The department is projecting to run 75 percent of originally scheduled courses virtually using Zoom and Virtual Machine capabilities weeks of March 16 until end of May. Despite the disruption to our business and personal lives, she has set the stage for our department to function at a high level during and after the conoravirus.

Rose Davidson, Coordinator Facilities Scheduling – Nominated by Anne Hunt
When we received the notice that campus was closing due to COVID, Rose and the scheduling team were tasked with cancelling all events which included contacting each client, processing paperwork, and removing events from Astra. In many cases, they are trying to reschedule some events for a later date.  Currently, they have cancelled over 200 events and meetings with new cancellations still coming in. Great job team!!

James Drone, IT Superhero – Nominated by Lisa Gates, End User Simpleton
James deserves some serious recognition for going way above and beyond during this crazy time. My home office situation would not be the success that it is without James setting me up with my home computer and printer. I know he has made special trips to the office to assist with this, we have spent quite a bit of time on the phone, facetiming and sharing screens trying to figure out how to make everything work properly. He is quick to respond and so patient with my lack of knowledge.  THANKS, JAMES!!!!!!!

Mike Fluke, Sr Enterprise Desktop Engineer

Nominated by Leslie Quinn
Mike Fluke is always a treasure even on the best of days but the way he has gone above and beyond in this crisis to help my team with all their technology issues is worthy of a medal.  He has had the very difficult job of trying to help people set up laptops, computers, VPN issues, cord issues… you name it, he’s dealt with it.  Mike, you are awesome.  Thank you so much for all your help getting us up and running to work from home.

Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
Mike has worked tremendously hard to support our division as we’ve moved online. He has gone above and beyond to help us get connected to VPN. He has helped staff get their computers to their homes and has been available and supportive of every request. Mike ALWAYS goes above and beyond and is deserving, especially during these difficult times of recognition.

Amy Foster, Office Assistant – Nominated by Kayla Harrity
Amy went above and beyond to compile addresses (at the very last minute, and on a weekend) so that ESL students could be mailed a packet a study material’s after the campus closure. Our ESL students have low digital literacy skills, and receiving this packet made all the different in their ability to continue studying while face to face classes are not in session. Amy also discovered a way to take attendance via Zoom, making our reporting obligations easier for the whole team!

Kathy Gill, Administrative Assistant – Health and Human Services – Nominated by Tim Frenzel
Kathy worked with students, instructors, CE registration, CE Operations, Ed Tech and Staff Development to reschedule, move to zoom, or cancel 35 courses in our department that were affected by the school closing. She also worked with licensing bodies to confirm that classes moving to Zoom would have their credit hours honored.

Zach Gredlics, Program Coordinator – Health and Human Services – Nominated by Tim Frenzel
Zach worked with students, instructors, CE registration, CE Operations, Ed Tech and Staff Development to reschedule, move to zoom, or cancel 35 courses in our department that were affected by the school closing. He also worked with licensing bodies to confirm that classes moving to Zoom would have their credit hours honored.

Sherri Hanysz, Associate Registrar – Nominated by Leslie Quinn
How fast can you convert this form to digital, change settings in Banner to reflect our new deadlines, and respond to a myriad of rapid-fire questions coming in from students, faculty, and staff?  Pretty darn fast if you have Sherri Hanysz on your team.  She has risen to meet every challenge with the same speed and excellence that she is so well known for.  I love how she has embraced all the change with a positive, collaborative spirit.  She has been instrumental in helping multiple areas of the Records Office go digital so that we can continue to meet student’s needs.  Her work ethic and willingness to help is of the highest caliber.  Blessing to you Sherri Hanysz.  Thank you for all the long hours and hard work that have gone on behind the scenes in the past three weeks!

Rachel Haynes, Coordinator Technical Training – Nominated by Susan Hoffman
Rachel has been everyone’s go to person these last four weeks!  Her calm approach and work ethic are outstanding.  She’s always the first to offer up a suggestion and takes the lead with supplying the method to improving our “new normal.”  She’s been instrumental in moving the New Staff Orientation information to an online format.  She’s also designed the new Extra Effort form. Rachel, we appreciate everything you do for us here at JCCC!!

Robin Judkins, Senior Network Analyst / Unified Communication

Nominated by Leslie Quinn
I’m starting to think Robin Judkins might be a robot or a superhero in disguise.  Wow.  She has worked endless hours over the last few weeks to help us figure out how to get staff members of two major departments set up to answer phone queues remotely from home.  This is such very challenging work riddled with technology problems, computer compatibility issues, WIFI issues, and yes even cord problems.  Not only has she succeeded in getting us all launched (our Enrollment and Financial Aid phone queues reopened for a soft launch this week), she has done her work with the patience of a saint taking hours with each person to make sure they have what they need and know how to use the new technologies.  Thank you so much Robin and I sincerely hope you can get a few hours of downtime very soon!

Nominated by Becky Bell
Robin has worked tirelessly and with amazing cheerfulness, in helping the Registration team get set up to work from home. We’re all so thankful for her willingness, expertise and graciousness.

Nominated by Sarah Martin
Robin has had the task of getting 18 workstations up and running so that the Student Development Specialists can take calls and work from home. She has been amazing in every way. JCCC is extremely lucky to have her on staff! We could not have done this without her!

Nominated by Helen Stoll
Robin has been phenomenal getting the Student Development Specialists up and running to answer calls from home. She is patient and always in good humor no matter the situation. She meets us where we are “technologically.”

Nominated by Ann Nordyke
Robin has worked tirelessly to assist the Student Development Specialist team in getting set up on our phone system from home. This has involved hours and hours of work with 18 staff members who have 18 different technology set ups. Robin has maintained her patience and sense of humor during this process. She has enabled us to be ready to assist students on the phones as we prepare for summer enrollment. We would not have been successful without her (trust me on this one).

Nominated by Constance Cupryk, Student Development Specialist
Robin has literally saved the Student Development Specialists with her expertise and long hours to help our phone system be up and running from our homes.  If it was not for Robin Judkins, we would not be able to be ready for enrollment and other business operations in the Student Success Center.  She patiently worked through our many technology problems every day for many hours the past few weeks!!!

Nominated by Robyn Zwolinski
As the “front door” of the college it was vital that our group, the Student Development Specialists, get communication re-established with our students and the general public during this unprecedented pandemic. Robin was responsible for getting us up and running from our homes. Robin showed unbelievable patience and perseverance with myself and each one of my 17 other team members, all of us with varying degrees of technical knowledge and numerous different computer systems.

Nominated by Audrey Cooper
Robin has worked long hours to help the SDS team get up and running with our phone system from our homes. She has maintained her patience and sense of humor throughout it all. We could not have done this without her.

Reni Karanevich, Administrative Assistant – Nominated by Beth Edmonds
Although, we are all dealing with taking the work of the college virtual, due to the size of the mathematics department, Reni’s task has been huge. With 80+ faculty members and 4,000+ students along with scheduling 300+ classes for summer and fall, Reni has performed all her work with the same kind and caring professionalism that we have grown used to. Reni’s efforts to help us to continue to work seamlessly is nothing short of heroic. We really appreciate everything Reni does every day to take care of us so that we may take care of our students in this very difficult time.

Paul Knoettgen, Manager Warehouse/Postal Services – Nominated by Lauren Baron
Paul has saved the day multiple times during this time where we are working from home.  He comes from a place of “yes” and does whatever needs to be done. In the last few weeks, he and his team have shipped multiple print jobs from Doc Services direct to our students [on short notice!], tackled a FedEx delivery issue and resent the item to our out-of-state instructor, and today retrieved and scanned the contents of a mail envelope (based off this description: arrived last month, sent from SD (his address label has a train on it) – most likely via a 9×12 postage paid envelope). Paul’s hard-work, reliability, and problem-solving is greatly appreciated and should be recognized as such.  Thanks Paul!

Chris Leeson IS – CAIT Support and other IS life – Nominated by Cheryl Coon
Chris Leeson continues to be a proactive member of our team as our Continuing Education, Computer Applications & IT department transitions to virtual delivery of courses. From the start of the coronavirus situation, he offered multiple solutions and continues to meet and often exceed our deadlines. He actively communicates with us while building and testing the virtual machines setup for our instructors and students to utilize during courses. His technical expertise and willingness to explore solutions is greatly appreciated. In addition, he is updated our Regnier Center computer lab software remotely in anticipation of our needs when we return to campus. Thank you, Chris!

Susan McSpadden, Marketing Photographer – Nominated by Callie Woods
Susan has completely shifted her focus to ways she can document the unprecedented time the College is currently in, even putting herself at risk in public to get the shots. She quickly realized that photographs need to be taken for marketing uses, but most importantly, historical purposes. Susan was even recently recognized by the UPAA, an international organization of college and university photographers, for her coronavirus coverage on campus, https://upaa.org/content/documenting-history-during-pandemic

Erica Miller, Program Coordinator – Professional Education, Life & Leisure, and Summer Youth Enrichment – Nominated by Tim Frenzel
Erica worked with students, instructors, CE registration, CE Operations, Ed Tech and Staff Development to reschedule, move to zoom, or cancel 110 courses in our department that were affected by the school closing.

Ann Nordyke, Assistant Registrar – Nominated by Leslie Quinn
Running a very large team of Student Development Specialists is challenging on its best day, but during this crisis, it has been extremely demanding.  In the past three weeks, Ann has not only worked very long days responding to student emails, she has also guided her team through implementing new technologies, new procedures, new dates and deadlines, use of new digital forms for students, well, basically new everything.  She and her team have hit the ground running to make sure students were able to communicate with the college during this critical time and get answers to their questions.  She leads with such grace in the face of challenge.  She is a remarkable leader, colleague, and team member.  Thank you, Ann, for all of your hard work, great ideas, and unwavering sense of humor!

Ellie Parker, Office Assistant – Nominated by Kayla Harrity
Ellie went above and beyond to compile addresses (at the very last minute, and on a weekend) so that ESL students could be mailed a packet a study material’s after the campus closure. Our ESL students have low digital literacy skills, and them receiving this packet made all the different in their ability to continue studying while face to face classes are not in session.

Vivian Pendergrass, JCAE ESL Instructor – Nominated by Janice Blansit
Vivian has provided unwavering support for a class of 13 ESL Certified Nurse Assistant students.  Viv trained on CPR to coach and prepare the students to pass that prerequisite.  Since then she has supported the primary ESL teacher through numerous obstacles with a calm thoughtfulness driven by a commitment to the success of every student.

Leslie Quinn, Registrar

Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
Leslie has been working 12-hour days regularly since we have left the office to make sure students have accurate information. She does this because she recognizes that accurate information is invaluable during uncertain times. She is reviewing, testing, and implementing online processes to support our transition to the online world. Leslie has gone above and beyond to ensure enrollment and registration issues are clear and concise for stakeholders. She is more than deserving of this extra effort recognition.

Nominated by MargE Shelley
Leslie has worked tirelessly for long hours making many decisions and facilitating discussions regarding deadlines, timelines, process changes, policy changes and how to make technology work remotely for her team.  She is one of the Directors on the front line with whom students, faculty and staff interact. Others know that Leslie will provide accurate information and great communication.  She has handled an overwhelming amount of changes and questions in the past three weeks!

Joann Riggs, Administrative Assistant, Scheduling and Event Management – Nominated by Anne Hunt
When we received the notice that campus was closing due to COVID,  the scheduling office was short staffed due to vacations, so Joann  immediately jumped in to help with cancelling all events which included contacting each client, processing paperwork, and removing events from Astra.  Currently, they have cancelled over 200 events and meetings with new cancellations still coming in. Great job team!!

MargE Shelley, Assistant Dean, Enrollment Management

Nominated by Leslie Quinn
In this unprecedented time, leaders are critical to the success of our teams, our students, and our JCCC community.  I am beyond grateful to have the blessing of working for one of the very best, MargE Shelley.  She is a “lead from the trenches’ type of leader who we can always count on.  She has offered encouragement and support to her directors.  She often asks, “How can I help?” and sometimes just does what she knows will help without anyone needing to ask.  She never pushes off to someone else what she can do herself even if the task is small and well beneath her title.  She is one of the wisest people I know and has worked tirelessly to make sure her teams are supported in their efforts to reinvent all the wheels in a very short timeline.  I so appreciate her every day but especially now.  MargE, thank you for the many long hours of hard work, all the things you have done to foster communication, wise decision making, and support for all of us.

Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
MargE has been essential to ensure business continuity for the Student Services division. She has been working countless hours daily (including weekends and evenings) to ensure students have access to the College!  She helps ensure all working parts are united and she addresses the needs of areas that need representation, or an issue addressed. MargE leads with calm, kindness, and generosity. I am unsure how operations would continue without her leadership – she is the glue that keeps all the moving parts together. She is more than deserving of extra effort. Thank you, MargE,!

Kim Steinmetz, Program Director, International and Immigrant Student Services – Nominated by MargE Shelley
Kim has provided steadfast and passionate reminders of issues faced by our immigrant and international student population.  In addition, she has kept up to date with federal and state rules, regulations and shutdowns that directly affect these students. Often these issues are different than those faced by our domestic students and need different answers and assistance. She has done an excellent job of communicating these issues to those who can assist and in reaching out to individual international and immigrant students who need personal assistance.

Helen Stoll, Student Development Specialist – Nominated by Leslie Quinn
Together with Ann Nordyke, Helen Stoll has been instrumental in making sure that we are here (even if it is remotely) to meet students where they are.  She started answering the registrar office emails on day one of the campus closure and has been a strong advocate for student needs throughout this journey.  She not only helps the student she’s working with; she helps us change systems so that the next person won’t encounter the same problem!  I love her vision, insightful nature, and her heart for our students who are struggling right now.  We are so blessed to have her on our team.  Thank you, Helen, for your very hard work and all of the times you’ve made us all laugh when we needed one!

Christa Viloria, Coordinator Facilities Scheduling – Nominated by Anne Hunt
When we received the notice that campus was closing due to COVID, Christa and the scheduling team were tasked with cancelling all events which included contacting each client, processing paperwork, and removing events from Astra. I many cases, they are trying to reschedule some events for a later date.    Currently, they have cancelled over 200 events and meetings with new cancellations still coming in. Great job team!!

Scott Wargin, Campus Police Officer – Nominated by Gillian Douglas
His comedy cartoons that appear in our emais each morning brightens up the start of each day, and make the world a lot less scary place, these days.

Sandra Warner, Executive Director Business Continuity – Nominated by Susan Rider
I want to thank Sandra Warner for all her work in creating and moving forward the campus business continuity plans.  Sandra is a key piece of our success with payroll and accounts payable being able to work from home and provide our services as if we were in the office.  She made sure we all have the confidence and understanding that we had the tools to keep our processes in place as we navigated the social distancing during this extraordinary time.

Christal Williams, Director of Financial Aid – Nominated by Kim Steinmetz
Christal has done an amazing job supporting the financial requests and refund requests that are coming through. She does this with calm and kindness. Christal is always focused on access and supporting students. She has gone above and beyond to respond to requests and concerns and create an online presence. Christal has been essential in this area. She is more than deserving of extra effort.

Rhea Winslow, Office Assistant – Nominated by Kayla Harrity
Rhea has gone above and beyond to stay in communication with her JCAE teammates and has offered to help wherever possible. She serves on the JCAE Engagement Committee, which primarily plans in-person engagement events and whose activities we thought were tabled until the fall semester. Rhea came up with a creative solution of offering digital hangouts so that engagement activities could continue during this time.

Mark Zolton, Manager Internet/Web Architect, Enterprise Application Support – Nominated by Deanne Belshe
As we were preparing to vacate campus, Mark fast-tracked development on an update to the notification module used by the JCCC website so we would be able to display our “notification” (the alert bar that appears at the top of the website) not only on the primary JCCC website, but also on the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art website and on the Carlsen Center website. His extra efforts ensured we’d have this tool available to us earlier than planned, and his solution is elegant, easy to use, and has been an invaluable part of our digital toolkit in recent weeks.

 

Career Development Center & Career and Transfer Services
Career & Transfer Services Director
Employer Relations & Internship Coordinator
Cathy Almai-Mahurin, Leslie Washington, Carol Gard, Jenny Badowski, Brittany Brower, Sarah Evans, Aimee Ramirez, and Caylin Smith
Nominated by Crystal Stokes
The Program Director and staff members of Career/Transfer Services and the Career Development Center have done an outstanding job of transitioning their services and presentations to a virtual format due to the global pandemic. Students can receive virtual assistance with Career/Self-Exploration, Job Search, Internships and Career Assessments! They did all of this and they were short staffed too. Well done TEAM!

Entire JCCC Faculty
Nominated by Aaron Prater
For undertaking the Herculean effort of transitioning all our classes to an online format and for providing students with much needed reassurance and support in this troubling time.

Payroll Manager & Analysts:
Val Gross, Kim Davis and Audrey Lehr
Nominated by Susan Rider
In the fall the payroll department started the process of completing their Business Continuity plan.  It was overwhelming and intimidating.  The idea of trying to collect all the information the department needs to be able to process payroll while not being in their normal space was huge.  Little did they know their embracing of this process would pay off.  During this time of social distancing my staff did not miss a beat as they processed payroll for three different locations coordinating their work and successfully making sure everyone got paid in this uncertain time.  I appreciate all they have done.

Accounts Payable Manager & Analysts:
Karen Cantrell, Julie Graviette, Julie Jobe, Kaci Barry
Nominated by Susan Rider
This spring the accounts payable department started the process of completing their Business Continuity plan.  They had little time to digest what we learned during the practice before we had to put it into play.  As we all had to figure out how to do our job from home, A/P had practiced and didn’t miss a beat as they did it in real time.  The staff is successfully making sure our vendors and staff get paid in this uncertain time.  The lights will be on when everyone gets back to campus!  I appreciate all they have done.

Technical Support Center Analysts & Technicians:
Liz Ingala, Tyler Davis, Dave Prebyl, Craig Carmichael, Chris Graessle
Nominated by Kim Manifold
I do want to give a shout out to Liz Ingala, Dave Prebyl, Tyler Davis, Craig Carmichael and Chris Graessle. They have been working from home, assisting students, staff and faculty the best way possible. They have been creating an average of over 100 tickets a day, as well as following up on every open ticket daily. In addition, several new KB articles have been published for student and employee use. These team members have really gone above and beyond with the team approach in helping the campus community.

Ed Lovitt and all EdTech Center staff
Nominated by Farrell Hoy Jenab
The entire staff of the EdTech Center, who are assisting faculty with making the transition from face-to-face to online delivery, have been working ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, including weekends and evenings, assisting faculty with questions from the most basic to the very complex.  They get some difficult questions and once-in-a-while some grouchy “customers,” yet they continuously offer their expertise cheerfully and patiently.  Their level of dedication cannot be overstated.

Admissions Staff:
Frances Shafer, Sally Smith, Megan Kirby-Luster, Ina Crane, Kathie Vandeleuv, Linda Pickett, Tamara Hoffman
Nominated by Pete Belk
Applications for admission have slowed lately.  The staff who typically process those, helped our articulation staff by updating literally thousands of records in Banner.  A couple of our subject codes change in summer 2020.  That requires all articulated coursework to change, and it must be done manually!  Linda put together an amazing training session.  These changes would have taken months to complete under our ‘old’ normal.

Kim Steinmetz and Suzanne Maheu, Program Director and Homestay Coordinator
Nominated by Jody Cross
Kim and Suzanne came up with a great idea to help lift morale within Student Services and put a smile on our faces while we are working from home.  They thought it would be fun for staff to email photos of themselves at home with their pets, kids, on a zoom call, in their new home office, making dinner, doing a hobby, basically anything showing how they are managing in this new environment.  Then they will put together a collage of the photos and every Friday while we continue to be home bound, they will email the collage to our email list so staff can see what everyone has been doing.

Student Services:
Christal Williams  Kim Steinmetz Leslie Quinn Pete Belk Alisa Bentley MargE Shelley Mary Ann Dickerson
Nominated by Paul Kyle
The Leadership of the Student Services and Success branch, have done a stellar job in making the transition from normal operations to a modified operation modality, within the context of serving our students and faculty.  Their creativity, flexibility and innovation were instrumental in the success of the modification.  Thank you to their team members who followed their example and lead to serve our students.

 

 

 

*Note: Submissions are copied exactly as submitted on our Extra Effort Virtual Nomination Form