YOU ROCK! Award Winners
YOU ROCK Awards are selected by the Smeal Staff Advisory Committee (SAC) to recognize staff of Smeal that have made a significant community or workplace contribution. Nominations are accepted continually with awards being made monthly.
Don’t let them hide their light under a rock! Nominate one or more co-workers that deserve to have their contributions see the light of day. Why do they deserve a YOU ROCK award?
June 2023: Jeanette Condo, Mike Kerfoot, and Michael Hayward
Together, Jeanette, Mike, and Michael have successfully completed several crucial projects vital to the college. Their hard work, dedication, and collaborative efforts have ensured the smooth implementation of new systems, resulting in increased efficiency and improved operations. While they each bring their own talents and work ethic to the team, their exceptional teamwork and commitment to excellence have set a high standard for the entire department. Their outstanding contributions, tireless efforts, and unwavering commitment to excellence make them deserving recipients of this prestigious recognition. I firmly believe that their exceptional performance and dedication to their work have significantly impacted the success of our college.
Jeanette, Mike, and Michael—thank you for bringing programming ideas and requests to life!
May 2023: Christine Wiedemer
Christine has been an amazing addition to UGE. In a newly-created position, Christine has expanded existing programming to create a dynamic and engaging prospective student experience. Her contagious positivity and excitement make everyone feel comfortable and welcome. She has helped hundreds of students and their families and makes an impact on everyone she meets.
Christine, thank you for making Smeal rise as a college of choice for so many incoming students.
April 2023: Dina Guthoff
Dina Guthoff makes the Sapphire Leadership Academic Program happen–plain and simple. As the program’s Academic Director, Dina works closely with our student leaders to ensure the Sapphire program delivers high-quality programming and serves the greater Smeal, Penn State, and local communities. Not only does she help maintain the Sapphire vision of developing rock star business leaders, Dina also demonstrates her care of each and every Sapphire student, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses and always serving as a sounding board for academic, professional, and personal issues. As if this wouldn’t be enough to fill her plate, Dina also serves as the academic adviser for nearly 200 Sapphire students, helping them along their academic journeys and often providing a shoulder to cry on. While it would be impossible to match her expertise, drive, and compassion, Smeal needs more rock stars like Dina! Please thank her for all that she gives the College and Penn State!
March 2023: Sara McConkey
Taking over the reins from Carrie Marcinkevage was never going to be an easy task, but Sara has done it with humor, grace, competence and professionalism. She has never failed to address an issue brought to her and makes time to work directly with Smeal staff members on issues big and small…even things that go well beyond her actual job description. The CRM team seriously rocks as a group (they’ve been honored before) and under Sara’s leadership they’ve continued to do just that. I don’t know how I’d do my job at Smeal without them and huge kudos to Sara for all she’s done to keep that support there and growing.
February 2023: Holly Packard
Holly is exceptionally kind and goes out of her way to truly help and to accommodate students. She takes the time to figure things out and will go the extra mile for each student. Her email responses alone are uplifting and encouraging. Her job is complex and challenging and she handles it with grace, a positive attitude, and she treats each student with respect, mirroring the expectation from them. She is an outstanding example of the best in Smeal and as someone who communicates with her, I am truly grateful for her professionalism and love for her job. She inspires. Thank you, Holly!
January 2023: Vince Gray
Vince has been invaluable since Stephanie’s departure. He is dependable, responsive and has really stepped up over the last few months. Vince has had to take on new responsibilities that were previously performed by Stephanie and has done so with enthusiasm. He is hard-working, knowledgeable and a huge asset to the College. I feel that Vince is well-deserving of this recognition during this particularly busy time in our office.
December 2022: Krista White
Krista is always available to answer questions about internships and CPT processes in a timely manner. She has an extensive knowledge base of these procedures which is really helpful for our students and advisers. Mostly, though, she has a positive, upbeat attitude that makes working with her very pleasant!
November 2022: Kathleen Rickley
I started in the Financial Office in April 2022. After being with the College of the Liberal Arts for over 10 years, moving to a new College was a huge transition. Penn State is huge employer and while we all following PSU policies and procedures, each College and Unit has a new process/procedure to get from A to B. Kathleen has been a critical part in getting me acclimated to Smeal College of Business. She is readily available to answer and assist with any SAP Concur reports I have questions about and picks up the phone anytime I call or text. I would like to thank her, for continually supporting me and helping me feel connected and apart of the Smeal Financial Office. Even 6 hours behind and living in Hawaii, she is a colleague I can rely on anytime. Thanks Kathleen for everything you have done!
October 2022: Michael Hayward
Michael has gone above and beyond over the last several weeks to support Smeal instructional teams’ use of the Peer Assessment Tool. He has assisted with providing and adapting reports, as well as testing usability to ensure student, instructor, and TSS success when using the tool and interpreting results. Michael is always responsive, friendly, and eager to help. I truly appreciate his thorough, professional assistance in supporting this heavily used tool. Thanks for all that you do to help students and instructional teams at Smeal, Michael!
September 2022: Mike Kerfoot
Mike is beyond amazing. He is innovative and always has a solution for the “BIG ideas” we bring him. His skills have allowed several of our alumni and student volunteer programs to become much less of a manual effort and have been able to help automate multiple aspects of our work. He is our technical support behind the systems. His creativity and can-do attitude help to enhance what we currently have and assist in making it better each year with all the suggested tweaks. Mike is thoughtful in his workload, and his production time has a quick turnaround.
August 2022: Kelly Swigert
New Student Orientation is a daunting task under normal times and safely, we are not in normal times. The Smeal College of Business invited over 950 incoming first year students to University Park this summer. That means over 950 students had to meet with an adviser to prepare their first semester schedule, including numerous students who needed both summer AND fall schedules. But New Student Orientation involves far more than helping students schedule courses. Many students bring one or two parents, which means coordinating a parents meeting in our building, simultaneously while students are scheduling. And given the almost mandated collaboration and uniformity required across all colleges, running New Student Orientation involves a ton of meetings, headaches and putting out of fires.
July 2022: Tara Strahan
Tara’s nominators note that she has been an important part of the Operations team with Penn State Executive Programs taking a lead role in pivoting all in-person executive education programs to a remote format. Some of these programs have started at 7am and others have ended at 11pm. Regardless, Tara enthusiastically approaches each opportunity to interact with our participants and has been a HUGE part of our team’s success during these unprecedented times! She represents PSEP in a professional manner and provides excellent customer service to our faculty, our participants, and our operations team. Her impeccable attention to detail does not go unnoticed – whether she is gathering and posting faculty materials or providing technical support and answering questions for our participants and custom clients.
June 2022: Kayla Horting
As a new employee, Kayla was the only administrative support staff in the academic Finance Department with no departmental staff to train her. Kayla treated each report, each request, and every person that came into the office as a top priority. Her integrity, work ethic and willingness to do what needs to be done is second to none.
May 2022: Karen Serago and Sue Ayers
In addition to handling their daily tasks with extreme professionalism and serving as role models to staff members in the College, Karen and Sue work diligently each year to ensure Smeal’s graduation ceremony is a memorable event for our students and their families. In the past three years, they have managed in-person graduation events, virtual graduation events, and the first-ever graduation held in Beaver Stadium. Each curveball they received has been knocked out of the park! The work that goes into graduation is tedious and tiring but exponentially important as the opportunity to celebrate our students’ hard work.
April 2022: Mike Gilpatrick
Mike G works tirelessly to get new graduate and undergraduate programs and courses off the ground. He shepherds proposals from beginning to end, directs consultations, and helps department chairs and Deans respond to curricular issues. He is an army of one, dedicating countless hours to ensure Smeal leaders have reliable, accurate data to make important decisions impacting the future of the college and to document our achievement of AACSB accreditation standards. Many of us trust and respect Mike for his outstanding commitment to integrity and his drive towards Smeal success.
March 2022: Graham Lockard
These are very dangerous times in terms of hacking attempts at Penn State. Graham has worked tirelessly to secure all Smeal laptops, desktops, and servers. His efforts ensure private information, research, and other sensitive content remain undetectable by the outside world.
February 2022: Sandy Simler
Sandy goes above and beyond in all aspects of her job. She is the budget assistant and back-up receptionist for the Professional Graduate Programs’ office. She’s the go-to person for any kind of budget advice and is always happy to assist and advise. She was one of the colleges SIMBA super users including completing additional training and being a go-to person when other staff were struggling with the new system. She takes pride in keeping current with the systems, policies, and procedures so she’s able to provide accurate and timely assistance. In addition to her budgetary duties, she’s the first to jump in and help current or prospective students, alumni, visitors, and other PSU employees when they call or stop in 220. She’s knowledgeable, friendly, and supportive of everyone. She always has a smile on her face and happy to help in any way. She is a dedicated and loyal Penn State employee. Sandy was an active member of the Staff Advisory Committee for over three years, serving two years as chairperson. She also coordinates Smeal’s Red Cross blood drives several times per year. She always strives for the best for Smeal and herself.
January 2022: Felisa Higgins, Chad Fuller, Matt Ross, Heather Baruch-Bueter, Andy Elder, Jeremy Bauman
In many ways, these six people helped to make the GivingTuesday 2021 campaign to support the Smeal Student Emergency Fund a success from behind-the-scenes. They guided social media strategy, created videos/banners/images for use on the campaign page and through social media, reviewed and revised press releases and feature stories, created campaigns in Salesforce, and much more. For a 2nd year in a row, their above and beyond efforts helped to produce record-breaking totals. With $27,515 raised from 169 donors, they truly had an impact on Smeal students. We are grateful for each of their contributions.
December 2021: Erin Long
Erin is a wonderful leader of our Operations Team! Throughout this past year of remote working due to COVID, she kept in constant touch with our team and made sure we were all safe and comfortable with the new working environment and that we had what we needed to be successful in our jobs.
She took our in person open enrollment programs and was able to switch them into a virtual format and made it look effortless even though we knew it was a huge undertaking. This greatly impacted the financial success of our department and kept us running while other organizations were struggling. She is COMMITTED to our clients and provides excellent customer service and builds on those relationships, while ENCOURAGING the team to perform exceptionally well with changing responsibilities and workloads.
Emily Baxter: November 2021
Emily Baxter is a joy to work with. As an instructional designer, she brings state of the art knowledge and ideas to the course design process, and works patiently and collaboratively with faculty to produce the best quality materials. Her patience seems endless. She is also very responsive (even outside of normal work hours), and quick to fix things that break. This must be very hard to do around semester changes, but she remains responsive, cheerful and patient even in the busiest times.
Emily has been a wonderful source of support over the last year. She has been exceptional in supporting me with putting together a new online course. She is quick and proactive, and has great attention to detail. She is always willing to research new options that can improve students’ experience with our online course. While she is not directly supporting my residential classes this semester, she has jumped on a call to help out whenever I have had questions about Canvas and other tools. Beyond her wonderful learning design skills, she brings a positive attitude and a lot of compassion to all our interactions, which I am thankful for. It is great to have her as a colleague!
Tara Banerjee: October 2021
Tara always goes above and beyond to provide the highest level of service to our students and program. Tara is always available to complete any task so that our students can focus on learning and our instructors can focus on teaching. She deals with recruitment, applications, enrollment, financing, books and other material, academic calendars, class scheduling, events, orientation, graduation requirements, commencement, and alumni outreach to name a few of her duties. She deserves to be recognized.
Renee Ford: September 2021
Renee Ford has gone way above and beyond in her efforts to help support the needs of a visually-impaired student attending the EMBA residency at the Penn Stater this week. While the entire eLDIG team has worked with the EMBA program, teaching faculty, and PSU Student Disability Resources to prepare materials needed by this student, Renee has been the one present for the entire residency this week ensuring that the student is able to access, understand, and use all of the remediated material. She has spent countless hours working with the student and the EMBA team, all while also preparing for fall semester courses to open and returning back to work on campus. She is an inspiration to our entire team, and we are all grateful for her tireless leadership and dedication.
For going above and beyond the past several months and especially the last week at the Penn Stater to onboard our new visually impaired EMBA student.
Renee consistently goes above and beyond in her work at eLDIG, but this week she supported our blind EMBA student at the residency period in a way that shows her true caring about the students of Smeal. Predicting that there might be issues to work out when the student first entered the EMBA classroom, Renee transported all of her “normal” work to the Penn Stater and while getting all of her courses ready for the Fall semester during a pandemic, she also sat with the student and attempted to help him organize his Braille materials (a language she can’t read!) and help with the residency issues he encountered. She didn’t get home before 10 PM during the whole week. Our College is lucky to have such a dedicated employee who cares about faculty, staff, and students.
Jessie Sorensen: August 2021
Sue Cherry: June 2021
Sue has gone above and beyond to help me through my first several months at Smeal. I came on board at the beginning of February, and during the pandemic, I never felt unsupported. Sue was there to guide me through and help me get answers to all of my questions. I would ask her a question and she would go above and beyond to give me answers and if she was unsure she would find someone who could answer it. Nobody loves Simba (from what I can tell) but that did not deter her from agreeing to fill in processing financial forms for a vacant ASA position. This is a perfect example of going above and beyond for someone else in the Smeal community. Not only is Sue graciously doing the extra work for another department, but she is doing a rock star job at it! She does all tasks promptly and with little direction, which is much appreciated. It is times like this that make you thankful to work with kind people like her. She is deserving of this honor and so we would like her to know, Sue YOU Rock!
Sharon Cox: May 2021
Sharon Coxs embodies the qualities deserving of the YOU ROCK! Award. In her 15+ years with the Center for Supply Chain Research, Sharon has remained steadfast in her diligence and dedication to help CSCR advance its presence as a premier subject area research center. Her motivation and self-teaching allowed the unit to hold weekly webinars to discuss supply chain issues and concerns in the early stages of the pandemic. These webinars were a new offering and Sharon made sure the participant experience was held to the same standard of excellence as all program offerings. She unselfishly shares her learnings with the team and encourages them to expand their knowledge to a higher level. As an institution of higher education, CSCR employs Communication Interns to assist with social media, newsletters, marketing initiatives, etc., all under Sharon’s mentoring. She has provided professional guidance while allowing full artistic freedom, access to Smeal staff at all levels, and representation in pertinent meetings. All the interns have commented on how worthwhile the experience has been in tying their career goals with their academics. Her attention to detail, understanding of technology, and overall personality has proven beneficial when working with Smeal Marketing, the RIIT Group, PSEP, the Farrell Center, and many other units across campus. These relationships were instrumental in the success of the PITCH Contest, the NASPO Scholarship Application, Leaders’ Forums, and the Corporate Sponsor meetings. While outlining only a few of her recent accomplishments, her contributions have been many! Sharon’s professionalism, mentoring, attention to detail, loyalty, and dedication are both admirable and commendable. Her coworkers offer their utmost respect and appreciation for her contributions and wish her well in her upcoming retirement!
Smeal Administrative Coordinators & Assistants: April 2021
I would like to recognize ALL of Smeal’s administrative coordinators /assistants! On a daily basis they handle a variety of requests and tasks from students, parents, department heads, faculty and staff, in addition to everyday responsibilities. During this past year, I can only imagine how difficult their job responsibilities became while working from home. KUDOS to all administrative coordinators /assistants — our College could not function without your endless commitment and hard work! YOU ALL ROCK!
Michael Hayward: March 2021
Michael began his time at Smeal two days before we moved to work remotely at the beginning of the pandemic. With multiple new projects starting, being down a person from a few weeks prior, and having to come up to speed with all of our systems and standards at Smeal, Michael took it all in stride. He has been a phenomenal asset to not only our team but to the Smeal and Penn State community. Though the job can often be stressful, Michael is always pleasant to work with, has a positive attitude, and is willing to take the time to learn about all of the cogs that make up Smeal. He has proven himself to be knowledgeable and to learn very quickly. He has made several improvements to the Directory, Faculty Annual Report, LEMA lab, Peer Assessment Tool, and several of our back-end processes. We appreciate the hard work you’ve put in and the dedication to Smeal. You rock Michael!
Misty Frederick Ritz: February 2021
Misty works for Smeal’s Management & Organization Department as the Course Manager for BA 342 and MGMT 301. Together they represent about 4,000 students for the academic year. She joined the Department in late February 2020. Taking on learning a new job while running all data, Canvas, and communications for about 2000 students is an overwhelming task in normal times. But then we want to fully remote learning in early March and her job became even more challenging. She held our group together, as she was learning the job and we got all students to the finish line in the Spring. I don’t even want to think what would have happened without her. She did this job with great skill and compassion for our students despite being under enormous pressure. She is now managing both courses from the start all fully online. Misty Rocks and I would like to nominate her for this award.
Mindy Fisher: January 2021
Mindy is one of the most organized, capable, tolerant, pleasant, thoughtful, and effective people I have ever worked with. She is an absolutely essential member of the PGP team. There is a cat meme I use to describe Mindy’s amazing patience level. (It’s a human poking a cat incessantly and it’s just sitting there basically smiling and carrying on happily). That’s Mindy. She keeps our Associate Dean’s schedule running on a minute-to-minute basis, and seamlessly coordinates meeting after meeting for our Managing Director team. If I had a dollar for every “Mindy can you please…” request I’ve heard her tackle, my house would be paid off! She contributes to our team in so many ways and is a genuinely wonderful, humorous, awesome person to work with no matter how tough, crazy, or weird things get. She has carried on flawlessly in 2020 while continuing to be super mom, super dog mom, and ALSO a super graduate student. On behalf of myself and our managing director team, Mindy YOU ROCK!
Chad Fuller, Matt Ross, Heather Baruch-Bueter, Andy Elder: December 2020
Across many instances, and in many ways, these four people helped to make the Giving Tuesday 2020 campaign to support Diversity Enhancement Programs a success from behind-the-scenes. They guided social media strategy, created digital content (videos/banners/images) for use on the campaign page and through social media, reviewed and revised press releases & feature stories, and overall helped bring the production value of the campaign to a new level. This was rewarded by more than doubling the previous record of donors on Giving Tuesday and raising more than $13,000. We are grateful for each of their contributions, and especially so in light of the rapid response oftentimes required.
Carrie Marcinkevage & the Salesforce CRM Team: November 2020
We would like to nominate Carrie Marcinkevage and the whole Salesforce/CRM team for the You Rock award because they are innovative thinkers, hard-working colleagues, creative problem solvers, consistent communicators, incredibly responsive, and they just rock so hard their amps are set at ELEVEN! Taking on the expansion of our Salesforce CRM is a prodigious effort involving all parts of the college, a wide range of needs, integration with so many systems and an eye on the university as a whole. Carrie and her team have managed this with such a deep understanding of the needs for each department, keeping us well informed about each step of the process, and involved in the decision making. They are always thinking ten steps ahead about how Salesforce could be adapted to help us meet our needs – often before we even realize we have a need to fill. And talk about responsive! Ask a question and you’ll often have an answer before you finish typing. We’re very lucky to have this team at Smeal. It’s for all these reasons, and many more, that we think they fully ROCK!
Wes Bumbarger and the Finance Office: October 2020
Wes and his team have done an amazing job handling the implementation of Simba. Most of us do not appreciate change, especially during these Covid-crazy times. Furthermore, the Finance Office performs their function with efficiency, grace, and professionalism. let’s be honest, we are not always happy to see their names in our inbox, unless they are giving us money! Keep up the great work Wes and team – you Rock and you are appreciated even if it does not always feel that way.
Felisa Higgins: September 2020
It’s easy to identify what makes Felisa an outstanding leader and deserving of a You Rock award. She’s an advocate for women, she’s emotionally strong, indescribably intelligent, accessible 24-7, transparent, and inclusive. What more can you ask for? She is the definition of strength during crises, particularly in 2020. Felisa steered the UGE ship through the rocky sea of uncertainty and ambiguity when our office moved to remote advising in March. We adapted and delivered high-quality virtual programs throughout the summer and continue to do so throughout the fall semester. While we are a capable group, without her significant support and willingness to seek answers to our questions, just satisfactory was never an option. Our team excelled at every task we were hit with! Felisa always has our backs. She cares about the individual as much as the group and makes every effort to acknowledge her team’s achievements publicly. Felisa deserves a bag of rocks – one for each of the hats she wears: associate dean, engineer, educator, mentor, friend.
Teri Ault & Darren Conner: August 2020
I would like to jointly nominate Teri Ault and Darren Conner for the You ROCK award. They have been the constants in the building since COVID19 impacted our lives. The work that have taken on has been immense and they continue to keep the ship sailing while the majority of us work remotely. We could not have done half of the things we have accomplished if not for them.
Chuck Whiteman & Smeal Leadership: May 2020
I feel like I can speak for most of the staff when I say that Chuck and the Leadership Teams have made this transition to telecommuting as seamless as possible. Having heard from members of other colleges, the communication and continuity these leaders have been able to provide have had a huge impact on our Smeal Community. I know I, as well as many others, enjoy staying up to date with that is happening across the college with our many Zoom sessions and Smeal Update emails. In times like these, it can feel as though we are more isolated than ever and the efforts put forth by Chuck and our many leaders at Smeal have made us feel as though the Smeal Community is with us now more than ever.
Darren Conner: April 2020
Darren rocks and I think the world should know it. Darren is always level headed and never panics. It is these qualities that have made him such a rock *haha pun* in the Smeal community. When Shuchi left Smeal, Darren stepped up, and into a role, few had any insights on. He is a great leader and a long time member of the Smeal community. Recently, in lieu of the Corona Virus pandemic, a lot of pressure has been put on Darren and his team to set up loaners and prepare people to work from home, who have never done that before. He has gone way above and beyond in his work duties, including working in the building so the rest of his team didn’t have to. Lots of people think it, but not a lot of people say it, thank you for all you do Darren.
Chad Fuller: March 2020
The development team asked for help with several video productions this fall for events such as the 10th anniversary of sustainability and Giving Tuesday. Chad has been a terrific partner in all of these projects, bringing some really great creative vision. The final product is always so much better than we imagined it could be. He’s very responsive to our time-sensitive requests, even when his workload is already full.
Matthew Ross and Kyle Hartzel: February 2020
I would like to nominate Matt and Kyle for the “You Rock Award” These two gentlemen do an amazing job behind the scenes. Often times we submit work orders for web updates or designs and we know it gets done but do we know who does it. Matt and Kyle recently upgraded a website landing page for me and I was so impressed. It was new, it was different and full of color. They truly went above and beyond on this project and I think they should be acknowledged for their hard work.
Hope Frey: January 2020
Hope is the backbone of Penn State Executive Programs and has really stepped up these last few months with an increased workload and additional processing requirements. She handles all program scheduling, faculty contracting, and travel for our programs both at University Park and worldwide custom locations. Additional University and client requirements meant that Hope handled processing over 150 additional forms for our Penn State faculty, and more than 75 additional travel request forms for one client alone. While all of this was going on, Hope also handled all of the logistics for our office move to ensure everything went as smooth as possible! Her enthusiasm is infectious and we truly appreciate EVERYTHING she does!
Emily Tressler: December 2019
Emily oversees the coordination of logistics for all Business Career Center events, employer recruitment events, and various career development events in collaboration with other colleges. She has been commended by employers on multiple occasions for her professionalism, courtesy, and excellent customer service even when provided on short notice. She never fails to go above and beyond to ensure that an event runs smoothly and often works odd hours to oversee events from start to finish. On top of her role, she goes outside of her lane to assist the BCC team with other areas to keep us running smoothly such as Nittany Lion Careers maintenance, marketing contributions, process brainstorming and pitching in elsewhere when needed! Emily has a direct effect on how many Smeal students are connected to employers. Hundreds of students attend the Mock Career Fair and Corporate Partner Career Fair, and over one thousand students came to MegaFair in September 2019. Countless students also secure interviews and jobs with employers through events and information sessions, all of which Emily leads planning efforts for.
Chris Thomas: November 2019
Chris is always eager to help with a project, learn new skills, and step when needed. Since my first days in Smeal, he has been a consistent smile each day, hard worker, forward thinker. Just recently, he was asked to take on some support duties that are outside of the scope of his role and did so without hesitation, even though he will be asked to spend time learning some new skills and take on some new potential headaches. Chris is in a role that seldom is seen or appreciated. The work he does keeps things running. It’s the curse of working in IT, no one comes to thank you for the countless day’s things work, only to complain for the moments they may not work as expected. Chris deals with this with a smile and a warm personality.
Michele Kirkpatrick: October 2019
Every day I am amazed by Michele’s work ethic and willingness to help others. She goes above and beyond to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Not only does she handle responsibilities for the Dean, she assists every person that walks through our doors (faculty, staff, students, donors, etc.). Recently there were staff vacancies in the offices of Honor and Integrity and Sustainability. Michele stepped up to assist both directors with meetings (Sustainability Advisory Board), events (Kohl’s Case Competition), budgets, etc., as well as, providing assistance with logistics for a high-level department search. This was an extremely busy time for Michele as we were also preparing for the arrival of the Smeal Board of Visitors. Without fail, Michele coordinated everything with style and grace. Michele is absolutely an amazing employee and she definitely ROCKS! She is truly deserving of this award!
Jen Neal: September 2019
With the loss of our department’s executive director, Andrew Krebs, early this year, our team was able to band together and keep the department running without a leader. During this time, Jen Neal, our department’s director of enrollment marketing, and my supervisor has gone above and beyond for our team and is more than deserving of this award. She has managed to take on more responsibility within her day-to-day functions while overseeing all of my projects, juggling an intern, and stepping up to act as a leader. Jen is passionate, thoughtful, strategic, brilliant, and most importantly, an asset. An asset to this team, to this college, and to this university. I feel so incredibly grateful to work with her and learn from her each and every day. I hope that you will consider her for this award because I don’t know anyone who ROCKS more than Jen Neal! Jen’s contribution to our team and the college as a whole is difficult to put into words. She is consistently a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, and a pillar of strength and positivity for our team. Professionally, Jen is perpetually coming up with ways to more effectively market PGP and to increase enrollment. She thinks outside the box, she is open and willing to trying new ideas, she is thoughtful in her work – she has a vision and she acts on it. On a personal note, I feel that she has contributed tremendously to my life and my position here at Smeal. She encourages me to reach further, to believe in myself, to grow in my role, and to speak up and share my ideas. She has made a significant impact on my life and my career, and for this, she should be recognized.
Dawn Maguire: July 2019
Dawn is an outstanding contributor in the Smeal community. She genuinely wants to understand the needs of students and actively responds to gaps to better serve them, which has been especially evident in her role as Campus College Outreach Coordinator. Dawn has committed herself to increase Smeal’s efforts to reach the change of campus Smeal students coming from 19 different Penn State campuses through strong collaborative efforts, creativity, and a positive outlook. She makes the time to spread herself around to numerous programs and events to connect with as many colleagues and students as she can and wants to be aware of the happenings and resources surrounding her. Whatever the situation, she responds with assurance, patience, and compassion and never lets challenging circumstances affect her positivity or the way she treats others. Her students and peers are incredibly grateful for her dedication and teamwork.
Jesse Carl: June 2019
Jesse Carl is an Analysis and Programming Consultant (AKA Data Guru) for the Financial Office. I recently approached Jesse to run a few financial reports for me. After a vague discussion on what I was hoping to accomplish Jesse was able to breakdown my needs and get me exactly what I was looking for. In the past my staff spent a lot of time putting together a report Jesse built in minutes. The reports are automatically sent to my inbox on the same day every month and I can quickly disseminate to my faculty. Unfortunately for Jesse because he was so efficient with my initial request then I began brainstorming other ways he may be able to help me streamline past processes. He once again got right to work to fulfill my request. If you are looking for any type of data/report Jesse is a great resource. You Rock Jesse!
Corena Breon: May 2019
As an integral member of Executive Programs for 24 years, her attitude, humor, and helpfulness are unmatched as we have grown our customer base. Among her many duties, she supports every individual who enrolls in our programs. Through her efforts, 1,557 participants have enrolled in our programs this fiscal year! Of those participants, she has supported 694 with lodging reservations while managing the logistics for every custom and open program. She handles everything from arranging sign language interpreters to scheduling special tours plus many other special requests. She frequently returns calls in the evenings and weekends to answer critical participant questions that can’t wait. Corena handles these important details with ease, client focus, and a great attitude. As a testament to Corena’s hard work and efforts, many participants request to meet her when they arrive on campus. Our team takes pride in her work, attitude, humor, and commitment. She is a valuable part of the Smeal community.
Emily Yanchuck: April 2019
Emily has been a fantastic addition to Smeal since joining the Business Career Center as the unit’s first Marketing Communications Specialist last summer. She anticipates needs before they arise, suggests improvements regularly, asks thoughtful questions, and produces quality work. Emily makes it easier for our Smeal undergraduates both at University Park and the campuses to understand their career resources, opportunities to connect with employers, and advice about professionalism through numerous means of communication and marketing. She strives to reach her audience effectively, increase the quality of existing materials, and continually challenges herself to expand her skill sets. She handles everything with poise, positivity, and a sense of humor and she is very appreciated by her team!
Leiann Chamberlin & Kevin Hubler: March 2019
Leiann and Kevin came to my rescue when I realized at 3 o’clock that I had not asked for room 217 to be set up for my 5:30 presentation. I was expecting 100 students for an info session and I was in a bit of a panic. When I called downstairs, Debbie was her usual charming and helpful self, but Kevin and Leiann happened to be standing nearby. Without hesitation, the came to my rescue and had the room completely set for my 5:30 presentation. That kind of unbelievable customer service is to be commended and recognized! These two are the best and they saved the day for me. They rock!!
Mark DeLuca: February 2019
Mark has helped me on numerous occasions as I try to utilize new technologies in Canvas and Zoom lecture recordings, etc. Most recently, I needed to do a lecture recording at the last-minute due to snow day cancellations. While I was hesitant to do it on my own, Mark was patient and walked me through it. And I know I wasn’t the only one in this situation that was calling on him for help. The best part is he never makes me feel like I should feel bad for having to ask – even when I call back more than once! Faculty or at least myself may be hesitant to put in the effort for new technologies, and if it’s difficult to get assistance or the support person is not patient while you’re learning it, it can be incredibly frustrating. But once these new technologies are utilized, they can have overarching benefits for students and faculty. I’m really appreciative of Mark’s support to make this happen and make it as painless as possible.
Paul Kuchinski: January 2019
Paul is an unsung hero at Smeal. The work he does usually would go by without anyone noticing. The reason it is not noticed is everything works. This is a cross many IT professionals must bear. Recently, Paul has taken the lead on migrating the vast majority of Smeal’s IT infrastructure to both new equipment and a new location. Paul has worked through both Thanksgiving and Winter breaks to minimize the disruption to our faculty and staff. I’d like to show my appreciation and highlight his hard work to the rest of the College. If you use a phone, printer, or computer in Smeal, the work Paul does is part of the underlying foundation that lets you connect to the Internet, print, use the VPN, and so on. Without his work,
Julia Cutler: December 2018
Julia has worked tirelessly in a lot of ways almost unseen by the rest of our office. She completely handles Smeal’s Admissions offering, including the upcoming For The Glory event, Which requires massive advance planning, from acquiring appropriate room space to purchasing Penn State and Smeal items for the recipients. Simultaneously, she has been coordinating the accepted Student Programs, ensuring enough coverage and quality event offerings for the accepted students. She even found time for a recent humorous office prank! But perhaps the reason she deserves this Rock Award is her work volunteering to be Smeal’s ambassador for the office of Student Disability Services and her efforts to ensure the creation of the first-ever Career Fair specifically for these students. I have seen how a pessimistic employee can bring down an office, and a positive person can have the opposite effect. That positive person is Julia. It’s hard to feel grumpy about Mondays when you have a co-worker like Julia who does everything with a smile on her face
November 2018: Jamie Stang
The Business Core Office is temporarily down a staff member for the semester and Jamie has willingly increased her hours and learned new tasks in order to keep the office running smoothly this semester. When Penn State initially had a 2-hour snow delay on
October 2018: Ashley Kuhn
“Ashley has been with the college (& PSU) for just a little over a year. She has learned a number of new systems and has many components to her position, including undergrad recruiting and the online graduate supply chain program. The University has recently implemented a new job posting system for all colleges combined. Ashley has worked diligently to learn to use the system to best assist our students (Supply Chain & MIS). She has spent many hours visiting classrooms teaching the students how to use the system. She has also spent many hours of the day meeting with students making sure they use it to their advantage. Like most new systems, there are bugs to be worked out, and it is not the most intuitive system for students. Ashley goes above and beyond to assist our students and make sure they have all the knowledge needed to be successful at the Career Fair. To say the least, she ROCKS!!”
September 2018: Monica Snyder
“Monica is the constant ROCK in the Undergraduate Education Office and as the administrative support to the Smeal Office of International Business. Monica continues to work with the student conference Powerful Women Paving the Way always making sure this conference runs smoothly. Monica’s position within the UGE unit is demanding and sometimes chaotic, which she handles with a positive outlook. She navigates difficult situations with a great deal of professionalism, tact, compassion and respect. In situations where there is conflict (internal or external), she is capable of remaining positive and calm. She has on many occasions diffused situations that had previously escalated in tone and facilitated a more open and productive resolution to the matter. Monica’s door is always open to listen and advise with students, staff and advisers. Monica excels not only in diligently and promptly fulfilling her current responsibilities, but also helps proactively identify future needs and develop solutions. Monica embraces every opportunity to contribute to the undergraduate mission of the college without ever taking note of the hardships we face as an office trying to serve thousands of students. From meeting with students who have violated the honor code, dealing with irate parents, effectively communicating with administrators across the university, to helping facilitate the annual UGE retreat, there is no task too big or small.”
August 2018: Matt Mooney
“Matt has been a shining member of the Smeal Community since day one! In his new role as Assistant Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Technology he continues to have a positive impact on Smeal and its various stakeholders. He always thinks about how changes will affect faculty and staff and communicates these changes effectively and timely.”
July 2018: Trisha Carlson
“Trisha works very hard in the RIIT Group scheduling spaces, processing food forms, taking care of billing for space and resources, and taking phone calls and forwarding to the appropriate area, just to name some of her daily tasks. In addition, she is involved with coordinating the furniture moves with OPP during the summer moves in Smeal, which can be very challenging at times. She has also been instrumental in setting up the Smeal lunch options since the closing of the Blue Chip Bistro.
Trisha is always willing to assist Smeal faculty, staff, and students, whether it be on the phone or at the front desk of the RIIT Group. She goes above and beyond to find the answer to someone’s question or to find someone who can help with that answer. She greets our customers with a pleasant attitude and makes them feel important. Trisha is an asset to the RIIT Group Service Desk team and the Smeal College.”
June 2018: Megan Marshall
“Megan manages the Business Core Office which oversees five high-enrollment undergraduate courses in the college. All of the courses rely on electronic testing (usually in the Pollock Testing Center) for administering exams. During finals week, many of the final exams for these courses were put in computer labs all over campus, including 15 different labs for one course over two days and 12 different labs at one time on Friday for another course. Megan somehow managed the huge job of coordinating all of this, including making sure proctors were in place, exam materials were prepared for each locations, students knew which exam room to go to and at what time (since this is not clearly published on LionPath for them), students with approval for extra exam time were accommodated, academic integrity concerns were handled, deferred grade requests were reviewed, and instructors received all information they needed to process final grades. It was a truly enormous task that could have easily overwhelmed anyone, but she handled it perfectly. Because of her efforts, instructors for these large courses were able to process final grades on time.”
May 2018: Tina Hall
“Tina Hall is an invaluable member of the college. She’s always responsive to questions and spends valuable time troubleshooting problems. Her dedication to ensure that faculty and staff in our college get the assistance they need is immeasurable. I appreciate her attentiveness, willingness to help and her patience especially with all the recent changes with WorkLion. Tina Hall, hands down deserves a pile of “YOU ROCK”!!”
April 2018: Elizabeth Labrin
“Ellie, in her role in the Smeal Office of International Programs, has been a wonderful resource for the Smeal UGE advisers. Most recently, she took on the task of reworking the student’s pre-departure agreement, a key piece in helping the students know how their education abroad classes will count towards their Smeal degree requirements. With the changes in University systems, the old online format no longer worked, and the paper form used previously was creating a cumbersome process. Ellie took the lead in working with advisers to create a more user-friendly form that should streamline the process and result in a better communication flow. Ellie is knowledgeable and always willing to help with navigating Education Abroad questions. We are appreciative of her efforts with this project!”
April 2018: Sue Ayers
“Sue trained me for my administrative staff position, and it was evident to me right away that Sue is the UGE office go-to person! She is extremely knowledgeable with the departments in the college and is friends with everyone. She is involved with several different programs in the college and appears to be a key person with the coordination of many events. With so many years of experience, Sue is extremely knowledgeable and always willing to share and teach others. Being new to Penn State, I have found Sue to be a great asset. With so much to learn and lots of questions, she has been more than willing to take the extra time to help me learn the computer programs, financial systems and the day to day requirements to smoothly run the front of the UGE office. Sue is a key team player with all the support that she provides.”
February 2018: Evan Smith
“Ever since Evan started working as an academic adviser in UGE, he has been a positive influence for our team. He is the definition of a team-player, and he is first to volunteer to help out his colleagues and takes on new tasks with enthusiasm. He never turns down an opportunity to grow and learn as an adviser, and he often takes on extra responsibility and seeks out professional development. Evan is very thoughtful and supportive of his co-workers, and the students that he advises say great things about him. Evan consistently goes above and beyond to provide the most positive experience for our office and his efforts do not go unnoticed!”
January 2018: Susan Winarchick
“Susan has become the go-to person for Salesforce in the PGP office. We use our CRM to manage every part of our students’ experiences – application, student advising, career coaching, employment tracking, alumni surveys, you name it. Susan has gone over and above in her Salesforce-related duties to make sure the team has the tools, reports and communications needed to run the business effectively. Susan continually serves as an indispensable resource as our team continues to learn. She always responds to requests for help or input with a helpful attitude, and she is exceptionally patient and solution-oriented when troubleshooting problems. For every “Hey Susan, how can I???” she has a smile and a solution. We could not do what we are doing, could not grow as we are growing, without her dedication and effort.”
December 2017: Laurie Allen
“Laurie is always the first to volunteer for programs during and after work hours. In the past year, I can’t recall a weekend or evening advising program that she did not attend. In addition, Laurie is my “go to” adviser when we have a difficult student situation that takes patience, understanding and advising skill. Laurie’s willingness to work in advising programs/events in the evening and weekends, sets a great example for less experienced advisers and contributes significantly to the culture of team work in our office. Most significant, are Laurie’s advising skills when it comes to taking on students with difficult/unique situations. Laurie’s skill in working with individual students experiencing personal or serious academic issues is exemplary. Her caring and professional approach not only puts the student at ease but in many cases she is able to provide the academic support and guidance needed to facilitate a successful outcome. Laurie’s students always speak very highly of her. She is certainly one of the most skilled advisers that I’ve encountered in my more than 20 years at Penn State.”
November 2017: Mara Ziegler
“Mara works in the Office of Undergraduate Education as an Academic Advisor. In the past month or so, I think everyone working in higher education can lean on development in the areas of work-life balance. I think that with given chances and trials I’ve witnessed Mara go through, she has almost seamlessly navigated these waters of “balance” well. So much that I would more than anything nominate her for the You Rock Award. She still does her best to share her wisdom and care for staff and students, all while doing a great job and loving and nurturing her family.”
October 2017: Betsy Beck
“Development and Alumni Relations moved to temporary offices this summer in two different areas of the building while renovation was completed on Suite 209. Betsy oversaw and managed the packing and move for all twenty-one people on our team. She partnered with the RIIT group and OPP to make sure we were planning ahead and things went smoothly. She handled delays and a second temporary move for ten people without it impacting the work of those individuals. Communication was key in keeping everyone informed about the status of the construction, and she identified ways to keep us all updated. It was critical to the work of our team as we prepared for a busy fall season that this was handled swiftly and efficiently. The entire process went smoothly thanks to Betsy’s coordination and planning.”
May 2017: Chad Fuller
“In the past month, Chad has created several important videos for our department. He has done them all extremely quickly and without a whole lot of guidance from us – he really took the initiative to make the project very easy for our staff! All of the videos were a vital part to initiatives we are executing. The fact that he was able to do them so quickly made our jobs so much easier in the planning process. Chad always does great work, but in this case he really outdid himself!”
April 2017: Amy Seachrist
“Amy has been a reliable and knowledgeable asset to the faculty & staff in Smeal. She knows the policies and guidelines and as a result she’s able to confidently make timely decisions which is vital for the rest of us to be able to perform our jobs. Amy is my “go to” when I have a financial question or issue. I often find myself saying “Amy, You ROCK!” I’m glad she’s a colleague and I hope she’ll be with the Smeal community for many more years to come.“
March 2017: Ashley Stark
“Ashley Stark coordinated and set up the new and successful #Megafair in the Fall. Ashley is very helpful to everyone. She is willing to jump in and do what is needed to help answer any question. Ashley is knowledgeable and VERY quick with her responses. Just a wonderful person to work with! Ashley Rocks!”
February 2017: Erika Novak
“Erika works in the Department of Accounting in the Smeal College of Business.
BA 411 is quite the hot ticket for most graduating senior students. With the demands and concerns with LionPath and other extenuating circumstances, Erika has always been gracious and helpful toward supporting the academic advising staff and others in the college with any assistance she can provide. I have told her she ROCKS on more than one occasion, but I think she is worthy of such recognition.”
January 2017: Melissa Forsha
“Melissa Forsha Rocks!! She’s been diligent and faithful for over a decade with her outreach services on behalf of the Smeal community. She’s been at the forefront over the years with Red Cross Blood Drives and the Smeal Spirit of Giving. She goes above and beyond to take care of the needs of others in a society when so many aren’t willing to. I applaud Melissa for all of her efforts and think she deserves recognition for all her time and commitment to others.”
December 2016: Stephanie Ironside
“Recently I needed to schedule a computer lab for a photoshop workshop for two different days for my class. We had one scheduled and were trying to schedule another one when Stephanie noticed that the one I had already reserved had the right number of seats but a smaller number of computers so students would need to share computers rather than working on their own. Stephanie then started searching for another computer lab and found one and physically went to look at the lab outside the business building to make sure it would work for my purposes and then scheduled it. This is just one example but this is the type of thing Stephanie consistently does. She double checks things for you to make sure the job is done right, going above and beyond what many others do. Her consistent performance of going above and beyond on seemingly minor tasks like this gives me extreme confidence in her abilities. It saves me so much time from having to manage these tasks on my own and I never have to double check or followup on things. I ask once and she handles it from there. Having this level of confidence in an administrative assistant is priceless because so much time can be lost when you have to constantly follow-up and double-check on requests.”
November 2016: Leiann Chamberlin
“Leiann has been a tremendous asset to the Business Building! She’s always pleasant and accommodating. She has a very good rapport with the faculty, staff, students and recruiters/visitors. Anytime I see her, she has a smile on her face and anytime I need anything, she is willing to go above and beyond! I’m sure I’m not the only one that recognizes this. I do believe the same attitude in the Business Building is the same one she has with her peers in the Office of Physical Plant and the RIIT Group. We had placed a request to have our carpets cleaned and she stopped into our office right away to see what needed to be done and she did a great job! She approaches everything with a professional and very pleasant attitude. In addition to this, she’s very accommodating with any daytime or evening events we have. EY is one of our Corporate Partners and the recruiter has a great rapport with Leiann and not only does he talk to her about events, they will have general conversations, that is a testament to her welcoming and warm personality; this applies to several of our recruiters.”
October 2016: Jamie Campbell
“Jamie works tirelessly to promote Diversity Enhancement in the Smeal College of Business. If you were to ask me how I would describe Jamie, it would be “ambitious”. I have only been here since November 2015, and I am already impressed by his ability to challenge our staff, faculty and students to be better at achieving a common core principle we should all be working toward, and that is diversity and inclusion. Jamie has been a part of the planning committee for the president’s (ALL IN) campaign to celebrate diversity and inclusion at Penn State. Recently, his “work baby”, the Business Opportunities Summer Session (BOSS) will be celebrating its 10th year. BOSS is a program designed to recruit and retain underrepresented students in the field of business. This program was recently featured in the Centre Daily Times and further recognizes Jamie is all his efforts to “ROCK OUT” the immeasurable opportunities we have to start early in celebrating diversity and Smeal.”
September 2016: Kevin Hubler
“Kevin serves the Smeal College of Business community on a part-time basis, as the Events & Classroom Technology Support Assistant. He goes above and beyond to provide outstanding support, and to ensure each event is set-up for success. Most recently, we called upon Kevin to assist us with a special event. The event required us to connect a guest speaker from across the country via Zoom, coordinate the back-and-forth between the PowerPoint presentation and various camera angles, record the session so that others can later view it, and post the recording online. In preparation for the event, Kevin graciously assisted us with a practice-run on short-notice. He recognized areas we needed to address for the live session and took extra time to learn new technologies so that the event would run as planned. The day of the event, he had everything set up and ready to go and facilitated all of the moving parts with grace. So, thank you, Kevin. You rock–your hard work does not go unnoticed.”
August 2016: Tina Hall
“Tina helped the 2015-16 SAC Committee to recognize the functional areas and streamline the ballot for the last election. I appreciate that Tina handles any task thrown her way with grace and efficiency. She’s proactive, she asks good questions, to better understand the situation and to streamline processes when she is able to. I know that if Tina doesn’t know the answer to a problem she’ll troubleshoot until she finds one. Tina has a positive attitude and as a result it shows in her work. Her willingness to lend a hand, her high level of productivity, her input helps her peers to make good decisions and her work ethic doesn’t go unnoticed. Lastly, her role in the planning and executing of the holiday event and annual staff awards reception and luncheon is appreciated. These are just a few examples of why Tina Hall Rocks!”
July 2016: Shelley Miller
“Shelley is a huge help when asking questions or needing guidance regarding mail, human resources, payroll, etc. She greets people with a genuine smile and a hello no matter who you are. No matter what I ask, or ask of Shelley, she is always willing to help at the drop of a hat or find someone who can help. Shelley does this with a smile on her face at all times and takes the time to explain how things are done. Shelley Miller, YOU ROCK!”
June 2016: Alex Boyce
“Alex Boyce created a matching system for the Alumni Mentoring Program. Simply put, it is incredible. He made a complex project seem like a breeze and built the application very quickly. It is extremely robust and has revolutionized the process for matching 300+ alumni and students. He went above and beyond to implement unique features and was able to add custom features based on some ideas that we both had.”
May 2016: Sue Ayers & Barb Porter
“Barb and Sue are literally at the front lines of all that Smeal is and all that they do. They are often a first contact for potential students and one of only a few people that can say they have had some form of interaction with every undergraduate student that has gone through this college. They are the “OnStar” team of Undergraduate Education providing support to 12 academic advisors, 4 directors and tirelessly answering the questions of countless parents and students. They work hard doing a job that is often taken for granted and thankless. For everything that you do, every single day…Barb & Sue, YOU ROCK!”
March 2016: Rich Mellinger
“We hear an awful lot about teamwork these days but Rich walks the talk. There have been so many work orders that Rich handled on his own and completed them in a very timely manner. From the handling of work orders to communicating with the faculty and staff without hesitation. When Rich saw a need he would step up to the plate. As far as I’m concerned if I had to pick a team Rich would be my first choice. I’m truly grateful for all of Rich’s help. Rich helps make the RIIT group successful and for that we thank you. If there’s such a thing as an actual “employee file” there should be a copy of this in his.”
February 2016: Pauline McCarl
“Pauline works as the Assistant to the Assistant Dean for Diversity Enhancement Programs in Smeal. She works well to keep all three staff members in addition to about 12 Graduate assistants all on the same page through her strong organizational presence. I always ask the question, “What can’t Pauline do!?” because she works so effortlessly and tirelessly for the benefit of all those in Diversity Enhancement Programs. Over my first few months here in Smeal, I have seen her hard work and diligent and detail oriented work enhance nearly every function here in DEP. Pauline is the person who would show up to the meeting saying, ‘I’ve already taken care of that. It’s on your calendar” before you can even ask. She is the one that always has an open door policy and is quick to connect with those new and old as they navigate their workspace. Pauline does a great job at keeping everyone on their toes and remaining joyful and positive throughout the day. I count it a privilege to learn and work with her each day. Pauline, “You, Rock!”
January 2016: Doug McAcy
“Doug is one to always be willing to help where needed. He is reliable and dependable and puts others first. He has been willing to do evening/weekend events and travel with students on multiple trips as needed.
Doug manages the 43 (4 new ones just this year) student organizations for the Smeal College and does a great job! Students feel comfortable working with Doug and he does a great job mentoring them in all of their events.”
December 2015: Darren Conner
“Darren is always very thorough and never fails to follow up on work that he has done. Our college and the RIIT Group is very lucky to have Darren as one of our IT Support Specialists.
I would count it a privilege to nominate Darren Connor for the You Rock award. Over the years I have seen Darren’s hard work and his quick turnaround with work orders. He always takes the extra step to help out in any way he can. His work is always done in a very timely manner.”
November 2015: AJ Delerme
“AJ is the person that patiently and graciously saves you when you have the heart-sinking realization that an important file is gone (or at least to your knowledge)! I try to back up my files and keep things straight but every once in a great while, something seems to unexpectedly go missing. When I called AJ to ask if it was possible to find a seemingly minute file that would save me much time and distress for me if restored rather than attempting to recreate it, he didn’t blink twice. He simply asked what he needed to know and in minutes, my heart rate (and file) was back to normal. All thanks to AJ! I’m sure AJ does way more than this on a daily basis, but this incident made me so grateful to him and I think he’s one of those people that go unnoticed or only hears from us when we’ve got a complaint, so let’s give him a You Rock to know that we appreciate all he’s doing behind the scenes to keep our technology interactions services running smoothly!”
October 2015: Tammy Lucas
“Tammy does a fantastic job keeping this very busy building clean and well maintained. From the floors to the bathrooms she is always working hard for us. Tammy helps Blue Chip Bistro in many ways.”
September 2015: Krista White & Bernie Weitoish
“Krista and Bernie worked to pull together a comprehensive list of recruiters and their alumni status for the Bloomberg Businessweek rankings in a very condensed amount of time. The importance of this is the list itself and the audience. The Businessweek rankings are of great importance to the college and having a comprehensive list is an imperative. In the past, this list was just 20 companies and it asked for minimal information. This year it changed and they asked for up to all recruiting companies for two years of recruiting (we submitted 60), and up to three contacts per organization along with their alumni status for UG and graduate work. The time commitment and level of detail increased significantly and they were able to accomplish this task in a minimal amount of time while also getting ready for the semester. Because of this, they both truly ROCK!”
August 2015: Louise Daubert
“It was 20 minutes before an MBA networking event was due to begin in the Atrium and nothing was set up. I approached Louise and made her aware of the situation. Without hesitation, Louise jumped into action locating and setting up high top tables, a speaker system with microphone and removing the kiosk from the area where the event was being held; all pleasantly, professionally and with a smile.”
“While over 75 1st year MBA students and MBA staff waited for the event to begin at 8:00 am, Louise’s actions allowed the event to begin no later than 8:05 am. A potentially embarrassing situation was averted. Our reputation with this fresh incoming class was not tarnished and the event was a success. Louise, YOU ROCK!”
July 2015: Chad Fuller
“Chad came to my rescue when a project took an unexpected turn and we needed to shoot video ASAP. He was accommodating, glad to help, and put my mind at ease about getting the project done by the due date. The end project was exactly what we needed and he delivered it well in advance of our expected deadline.
As the project is applicant-facing, it was extremely important to have it done quickly and done right. We couldn’t have achieved what we needed to without Chad’s flexibility and expertise. Chad’s work on this project helped us create a high-quality product.”
June 2015: Jordan Rose
I recently put in a work order that was assigned to Jordan. He was very prompt in responding to it and providing a resolution. A couple other issues came up and when I stopped down at the RIIT group front desk, he came out and solved the problem on the spot for me and didn’t make me put in another work order.”
“I really appreciated how quickly he responded and that he seemed genuinely willing to help me rather than just doing it as a job.”
May 2015: Karen Serago & Jerry Benito
“Karen Serago and Jerry Benito, in Smeal UGE, do more than an amazing job coordinating the college’s spring commencement ceremonies. It’s a year-long planning process beyond the day of ceremonies. Karen and Jerry have the organization down to a science, yet continue each year to make it better than before! From the Get Read to Graduate packet pick-up, to the communication and information flow, to the day of event, Karen and Jerry set the benchmark for excellence. They should be recognized for their efforts!”
More than 1,400 Smeal students earned their degree this spring. This is a larger number than years prior.”
April 2015: Shannon Stover
“Shannon is ALWAYS on the ball. She’s responsive, fast, knowledgeable, and a pleasure to work with. Even in stressful situations, Shannon is positive and keeps a great sense of humor. I often literally say to her “YOU ROCK”.
“Being able to have a resource to support you and allow you to do your job effectively is very important in a fast moving workplace. Shannon makes my job easier, and the jobs of my team easier, and I know that I can always count on her. Her can do attitude keeps projects moving quickly so we can accomplish what we need to.”
March 2015: Lacey Lepp
“Lacey has been with our department for about a year and has done an excellent job in general. She is helpful, professional and courteous. I feel that she is a great addition to our department.”
“About 3 weeks ago I needed to upgrade some software (Visual Studio – a programming suite from Microsoft). I bought a copy online for around $500. As Lacey was processing this expense, she took it upon herself to check with our IT group to see if we already had a College wide license for this software. It turns out that we do. She informed me and then helped me sort out the refund process with Microsoft (no small feat). This is just one example of the quality and thoughtful work that Lacey engages in every day in our department.
February 2015: Debra Bradley
“I would like to nominate Debra Bradley, Bistro Manager, for the Smeal SAC You Rock Award. The Bistro has been working closely with Smeal NET Impact, a student organization focused on promoting sustainability initiatives in our community, to make important and impactful changes to the waste reduction, recycling, and composting system in the Bistro. Debra and her staff have embraced these changes and gone above and beyond to help the students, faculty, and staff in the Smeal community adapt. Debra, along with her staff, have been putting on gloves and a smile and patiently teaching Bistro patrons the new system since its implementation.”
“As a member of Smeal’s Green Team, I really appreciate Debra’s willingness to jump in and do what is needed to support these small changes that make a big impact. Thank you, Debra!”
January 2015: Christine Novinskie & Laurie Allen
“I just wanted to thank Christine and Laurie for putting together a great “Show” in the Big Event! Preliminary numbers indicate it was BIGGER and BETTER than last year with 1,598 students in attendance! More importantly, this event has become a fantastic resource for our students in pre-major status as they seek information about majors and all the outstanding opportunities available to them in Smeal. Thank you Laurie and Christine!”
“All pre-major students in Smeal and DUS (all campuses) are invited to this event. It is geared towards giving students information about majors and about the college.”
December 2014: Debbie Weaver
“Debbie is like a ray of sunshine in our RIIT Group basement office – every single day. She greets our customers with a smile, even when they are complaining about a problem or upset that something is not working. She always has a cheerful greeting for each of us as we come to work or head out for the day. She remembers our birthdays. Twice a week, she bakes treats to share with all of us, and once a month she treats us all to an extra special treat in honor of those who celebrated birthdays that month. In a nutshell, Debbie takes the time to treat each person she encounters as if they are important to her and makes us all feel as though we matter.”
“Working in a service-oriented job can be very challenging because customers seldom contact us to tell us we’re doing great work. The majority of our calls are from those needing help fixing a problem, or finding a solution to a challenge. Most of the time these issues are urgent and important. Being able to maintain a positive attitude and remain calm while facilitating these solutions is critical to providing the best possible customer service. Debbie does this each and every time – even when she’s having a bad day or may not be feeling great herself. The fact that she is able to also shine her positive light on those of us who work with her every day makes us all a better team. Debbie’s effort and commitment to bringing a little sunshine into everyone’s day should be rewarded, because she truly does ‘rock.’”
November 2014: Debbie Lissenden
“Debbie is the Director of Records and the Business Core in the Smeal Undergraduate Education Office. Debbie is a wealth of knowledge, always willing to help answer questions, troubleshoot and to make the advising office run smoothly and efficiently. Despite a full plate and projects of her, she always has an open door policy. She is always incredibly pleasant, greets you with a warm welcome and a smile on her face! Her calming presence sure helps in stressful times!”
“Debbie should be recognized for her hard work in making things run smoothly and always being so kind and pleasant to work with. We are fortunate to have such an awesome colleague!”