Extra Effort Awards – June 19, 2020

Ihsan Al Faili, Network Operations Manager – Nominated by Matthew Holmes
I would like to recognize Ihsan’s leadership over the past few months. There were many projects related to network operations and construction projects that continued to move forward and complete thanks to his extra efforts. Ihsan holds daily 15-30-minute Zoom calls with the team to talk and discuss activities. He also makes frequent trips to campus in order to make repairs on network infrastructure or construction-related network installs. Ihsan is keeping network operations on task and ensures the team has great communication and support.

Hasan Ashir, Sr. Network Analyst – Nominated by Matthew Holmes
Hasan led the effort to clean and re-cable several network data rooms located around campus. These data rooms are typically shared spaces with electrical or custodial closets. Hasan went above and beyond during network switch replacements by cleaning the rooms and rewiring over 1,000 data connections, replacing data jacks, and replacing patch cables in the closets in CLB, LIB, and GEB.

Sarah Baillos, Collaboration Support Specialist – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Sarah has been excellent in stepping forward and assisting with reworking our policy and procedure document to ensure we are staying on top of this as we continually change and update our operations and procedures.

Jimmy Bowie, Program Coordinator, Continuing Education – Nominated by Josh Smith
Under the phase two return to campus plan, Jimmy worked tirelessly with the CE Operations and Scheduling team to ensure social distancing guidelines were followed and plans were put forth to secure rooms for in-person handbook testing for the driver’s education program. The testing will be conducted over a four-day period mid-June for approximately 140 drivers ed students. 

Jodie Dietz, Coordinator Collaboration Center – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Jodie has been amazing during this time assisting with leading a team of 6 people in the CoLab through multiple change processes to ensure the proper supports for them and those we serve in our conversion to online. She has stepped up and has taken on everything that has been asked of her with an amazing disposition. I am truly glad to have her on my team.

Bob Epp, Sr. Ed. Tech Analyst, Educational Tech/Distance Learning – Nominated by Heidi Ide
Bob helped me make a farewell video from the nursing faculty to our nursing graduates. He took 25 individual faculty videos and compiled them into one video link that was incorporated into the final graduation video to our students. He was a lifesaver with tips on how to record the videos and formatting them to play correctly. I’m so glad I reached out to the experts for help. Thank you, Bob!

Laura Garinger, Collaboration Support Specialist – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Laura has been an integral addition to our social media team, working diligently to step up on design work for our social media and research of new platforms. She is a fantastic worker!

Matthew Gwynn, Deaf Service and Accommodations, Access Services – Nominated by Kathi Park
Since the transition from JCCC to work from home, Matt has done a wonderful job with ending the school year with students and staff.  The technical changes with CC videos and document formatting for students. He also met with the interpreters weekly, offering his help and support. We appreciated him. 

Tim Hall, Lifetime Fitness Professional, Health & Wellness – Nominated by Terry Harrison
Tim has continued to punish us in our Fitness classes via Zoom just the same as he did in person. He sends out notices every week to remind us to log into classes. He even videotaped the class if we couldn’t make it to his live Zoom class. He cares about our physical health and pushes us to keep working out despite the changes in our lives. He is awesome!!!!

Anne Hunt, Manager Conference Services, Scheduling & Event Management – Nominated by Josh Smith
Anne was extremely supportive in helping identify labs in RC that were large enough for the Transportation program to use for driver education handbook testing for 140 students. Anne provided floor plans, suggestions for room layout, and square footage to ensure proper social distancing guidelines could be adhered to. She also helped identify several rooms that could be used next month and in the fall for when in-person drivers ed classes resume to campus.

Robin Judkins, Sr. Network Analyst, Telecom – Nominated by Matthew Holmes
Robin went above and beyond supporting remote workers and their use of telecommunication systems. She has tirelessly worked to enable campus phone use via Cisco Jabber. Robin continues to help staff and faculty to use Jabber on smartphones and computers. She recently completed working with a local vendor to enable over 2,000 campus phone and voicemail users with Jabber so they can check voicemail and use their campus phone remotely. 

Cindy Kleinsorge, Financial Aid Scholarship Coordinator, Student Financial Aid – Nominated by Debbie Brewer
Cindy awarded scholarships based on the scholarship deadline of April 15.  She was able to do so quickly and accurately while working from home.  JCCC is lucky to have Cindy as a student advocate.  She tried to think outside the box to make sure as many students as possible benefited from JCCC scholarship funds.  Thank you, Cindy!

Hannah Massman, Learning Specialist, Academic Achievement Center – Nominated by Kaitlin Krumsick and Valerie Mann
The AAC hosts academic “Smart Start” orientations at the start of each semester and Hannah has taken on the bulk of these orientations this week, working up to 12-hour days!  She has met 1:1 with countless students just in a few days, walking them through how to be a successful online student, time management, campus resources, and so many other important things!  Hannah’s tireless enthusiasm, patience, and dedication to the students will no doubt help them find success this semester!

Suneetha Menon, Director – Science Resource Center, Academic Support – Nominated by Leffin Lasley and the Science Resource Center Team
The Science Resource Center staff would like to thank our Director, Suneetha Menon, for packing up the entire Science Resource Center space while the rest of the staff was home sheltering in place.  She did an amazing job getting the SRC organized to move and packed up so we could begin the move the first floor of the library.  She has gone above and beyond for the SRC and the students the SRC serves.

Michelle Nevrkla, Collaboration Support Assistant/Technology Tutor, Collaboration Center – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Michelle has taken on learning new technologies like a champ as we have launched new platforms to meet the demands due to Covid19 and has been an integral part of our web new page development/updates team.

Jarred Penton, Collaboration Support Specialist – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Jarred has stepped up and worked directly with students needing assistance with technology, served as an integral part of the internal social media team and went out of his way to request an app be created for our team.

Kris Perales, Graduation Analyst, Records
Ryan Smith, Graduation Analyst, Records – Nominated by Debbie Young
Ryan and Kris completed the Spring graduation verification efficiently and effectively working from home. The verification process was finalized in record time! 

Isaiah Reasby, Collaboration Support Assistant, Collaboration Center – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Isaiah is an excellent worker that has not only taken many things externally because he is a student but also excelled in his work as a Collaboration Support Assistant/Technology Tutor. He has taken on learning a large number of new technologies and started a YouTube channel for us and is leading the way in the design of our tech tutor tutorials.

Joyce Reinert, Testing Center Assistant, Testing and Assessment Services – Nominated by Erika Henritz, Mary Ann Dickerson and Janelle Rowe
Due to the high volume of students Testing Services historically supports, consideration of our return to campus became rapidly overwhelming — especially given the number of students we are currently serving online. Recognizing this, Joyce quickly took the reins, drafting up not only comprehensive policies and step-by-step instructions for our front-line staff, but also a blueprint of our center and labs to facilitate talking points on how to best protect our staff and our JCCC students. Her willingness to go above and beyond, ability to think outside of the box, attention to detail and knowledge of our systems, dedication to our processes, and thoughtfulness toward her colleagues and the many students they support every day makes Joyce a huge and irreplaceable asset to our team.

Becky Ricklefs, P-Card Program Manager, Procurement Services – Nominated by Durnae Kennelly
I’d like to recognize Becky Ricklefs for going above and beyond to help me with an order that needed to be submitted.  My p-card expired, and my new card couldn’t be delivered due to the campus being closed.   Becky was able to go to the warehouse, pick up my new p-card, and activate it, so I could complete my Staples office supply order.  Becky was a tremendous help and I appreciate all her efforts in this matter.

Joann Riggs, Administrative Assistant, Events and Scheduling – Nominated by Anne Hunt
Joann volunteered to help distribute PPE packages to returning campus departments. She has spent several hours on campus, in the summer heat, hauling boxes of supplies to each department so they would have all of the necessary safety materials ready and available for them upon their return. 

Diana Sawtelle, Supervisor Financial Aid IT, Student Financial Aid – Nominated by Debbie Brewer
Diana has been 100% responsive to any student request that we have asked of her.  Diana ran so many lists and gathered student populations to make sure that financial aid was following all the changes due to COVID-19.  She did so while also setting up the financial aid process for the new year and making sure students could be awarded while all employees are working from home.  She was asked to help with setting up specific communication with students and the process worked beautifully.

Chase Scott, Collaboration Support Assistant/Technology Tutor – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Chase has taken on learning a large number of new technologies as we have launched new platforms to work with students even better online. He has also been an integral part of our video services subgroup.

Alexa Summers, Lead Collaboration Support Assistant – Nominated by Shawn Smith
Alexa has been integral in leading our Technology Tutor team that has had to adopt new ways of communication through technology very quickly. She has also assisted in developing our new technology tutoring website embedding chat and appointment features.

Patty Swartzel, Classroom Coordinator, Hiersteiner Child Development Center – Nominated by Lindsey Cramer
Patty purchased some children’s masks for my little girls. My eldest daughter wears hers to piano lessons and she says it is her favorite mask. We truly appreciate Patty’s thoughtfulness and generosity.

Heather Tharp, Administrative Assistant – Science Resource Center, Academic Support – Nominated by Leffin Lasley and the Science Resource Center Team
The entire SRC staff would like to thank our SRC Admin Assistant, Heather Tharp, for packing up the entire Science Resource Center space while the rest of the staff was home sheltering in place.  She did an amazing job getting the SRC organized to move, packed up, and unpacked in our new space in the first floor of the library!  She has gone above and beyond for the SRC and the students the SRC serves.

CE Marketing: Staci Malone, Coordinator
Rachel Evans, Administrative Assistant – Nominated by Elisa Waldman
Thank you to the CE Marketing team for putting together a beautiful Fall catalog.  In addition to including new delivery formats and new classes, Staci and Rachel collaborated with the Marketing Department to implement an online proofing system for the catalog.  The catalog will be mailed around July 1st, letting our community know that JCCC is here to support them in the Fall!

CE Operations: Erica Miller, Program Director
Aimee Martin, Program Coordinator
CE Registration: Teresa Schmitz, Supervisor Registration Specialist
Enterprise Application Support: Gavin Cotsworth, Business Analyst
Network & Data Center Operations: Matt Holmes, Director Network/Data Center Operations
– Nominated by Elisa Waldman
Erica Miller, Aimee Martin, Teresa Schmitz and helpers from Gavin Cotsworth and Matt Holmes, ALL worked quickly and tirelessly last weekend to get the CE Registration system working after a 48 hour outage due to a cut utility cable that could not be repaired until protestors in Miami left the site of the issue.  Our JCCC team monitored the situation, provided timely updates, and acted swiftly to restore operations. Thank you!

NARS Welding Team: Jason Mueller, Professor/Chair Railroad Welding
Doug Sample, Lab Technician Welding, Railroad Industrial Technology
Dell Thomas, RR Welding Trainer, Railroad Industrial Technology
Darrell Wapp, RR Welding Trainer, Railroad Industrial Technology
Shannon Lueker, RR Welding Trainer, Railroad Industrial Technology
Tyler Mangels, RR Welding Trainer, Railroad Industrial Technology
– Nominated by Terry Harrison
This team is amazing!!!  As they prepared to move into their new building, they discovered that some adaptations needed to be done to be ready for classes on June 15. NOT only did they move their offices to the WCMT, but they put together a list of materials and went shopping; then used their welding skills to make needed carts, to change out plugs, and adapt the labs to their needs of the railroad students.  It took teamwork, communication, flexibility, and lots of hard work. Their efforts behind the scenes made the first day of class look like any other day.  We appreciate you!!!

Video Services: Barrett Beasley, Director of Video Services
Libby Kleve, Manager Production/Video Services
Lori Nickell, Videographer/Editor
Tsgaab Assefa, Videographer/Editor
Sam Tady, Sr. Videographer/Editor
Chris Horvat, Sr. Videographer/Editor
– Nominated by Heidi Ide
The Video Services team has gone above and beyond to work with our department and students to make a very memorable graduation video for our nursing graduates. They created special Zoom rooms to record individual students tassel flips and they compiled all the videos and PowerPoints and media into a link that we can share with the students and their families. They brainstormed with our graduation committee to come up with all these wonderful ideas and did it all with very little notice or time to complete it. They were a joy to work with and hope they know how much the nursing department appreciates all the effort they put into this project. Thank you!

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/