Past Campus Kudos Award Recipients

2021 Recipients

Rolland Hall and Greg Heilman (May)

Nominated by Tammy Fraase

This kudos is long overdue for these two gentlemen. For years they have hung cupboards, removed cupboards, loosened/tightened brackets, disassembled, assembled, and moved furniture for our office. And every time they did it without a huff or grumble, and with an energetic sense of humor. They did the dirty work and our office got the reward. When you have happy employees, you have a happy work environment, so it is time they get some of the recognition they deserve for making that possible for us. I just want them to know how much they are appreciated, as I think their role is sometimes taken for granted. Keep up the good work. Thanks, guys!

Rose Rubenstein (May)

Nominated by Betsy Carter

For the past few years at ACE Tutoring, Rose has provided support for over 1,200 students in mathematics and engineering classes. Rose is outgoing and personable, and always goes the extra mile to connect with students and colleagues, making sure to greet everyone and get to know them better. Because of this, Rose is in high demand with students and is often very busy during her shifts. Even then, she gives each student very personalized assistance and is committed to helping them to understand course material. Over the past year, Rose consistently receives strong positive feedback from her coworkers and students alike, and I wanted to nominate Rose for this award because she truly makes NDSU a better place by her willingness to connect, help, and bring joy to others.

Ester McGinnis (May)

Nominated by Shannon Ueker

When 2020 opened its jaws and swallowed our plans, many of us turned to the soil. Gardening was a hot topic for many beginners in 2020 and Esther heard the call. She helped organize a team of Extension professionals to create succinctly executed videos to help teach ND's newest growers. While doing this, she served on hiring committees for NDSU, mentored County Agents across the state, and still found time to nurture and celebrate my professional growth. Esther is so fun to work for and encourages learning and growth in my job. She uses her intuition, intelligence, and the insight she's gained in her first years at NDSU to cultivate rewarding partnerships that benefit the campus and broader community. She makes time for her graduate students, her peers, her Master Gardener volunteers, and for her assistant. She's a powerhouse.

Krista Williams (May)

Nominated by Carin Engler

I would like to nominate Krista Williams for her help in recycling efforts in the Memorial Union. Over the past few years or more, she has consistently kept an eye on recycling - suggesting more bins, placement of bins, bringing plastic bags in for recycling, and recycling string lights. The bags and lights were on her own time after hours.

For plastic bag recycling, she hauls out at least a 60 gallon bag of plastic bags each week. For the lights recycling, she brought in 5 tote bins plus a couple of cardboard boxes too. All of this work is appreciated Krista! Thank you for your hard work.

Navneet Deosi (April)

Nominated by Amy Kain

Navneet provides excellent customer service over the phone whenever I call the Help Desk with questions! She is helpful, patient, and exhibits a positive attitude. Her willingness to be cheerful and to help problem solve over the phone is greatly appreciated! Please select Navneet as a Campus Kudos recipient. AAAAA+++++ for excellent customer service to campus!

Teri Shepherd (March)

Nominated by Antonia Curtis

Teri Shepherd has always been very helpful with any insurance-related questions I have, as I know she is for all students. However, this past week Teri went above and beyond to assist me.

My family’s insurance is through my husband’s work, and his work switched carriers unexpectedly. I did not receive any notice of the change and did not receive ID cards or any other information from the new carrier. I did not know the insurance had changed until I went in over the weekend and learned that my insurance from the previous carrier was inactive. I could not find any information on our coverage with the new carrier on my husband’s HR site, and I could not create an account on the new insurance’s website because I did not have ID cards and therefore didn’t have subscriber number, group number, etc. which I needed to set up an account. This was incredibly confusing and frustrating.

On Monday morning Teri emailed me that a claim for a visit at Student Health had not gone through because the old insurance was inactive. I let Teri know everything that was going on. Teri was so empathetic in her response and said she would see if she could get into the new insurance’s site from her end to run the claim. She also said she would hold off on filing the claim or sending me a bill until everything was sorted out, which I thought was very generous.

A little later I heard back from Teri. She had been able to log into the insurance carrier’s website to verify my coverage and had filed the claim. However, Teri had gone above and beyond for me: she had downloaded my insurance card and attached it to the email so I could access the website myself. Then she went even further. She told me that she would also be happy to download my kids’ ID cards so I could get the information to their provider right away. This was outside the scope of what she needed to do for me as a patient, so the fact that she had offered meant so much to me. Even though it may have been something small that wouldn’t take her much time, to me it meant a huge relief for not having to find time in my busy days to set up the account and get my kids’ cards right away; I could wait until a couple of days later in the week when I was less busy and could take the time to look through our new coverage. Her help eased some of the frustration I had with the situation and erased the helplessness I was feeling. Teri’s help with this issue may have been a small thing for her, but it was a huge thing for me.

Kimberly Larson (March)

Nominated by Cathy Cusey

We had a student come in with a problem regarding a bill. It became quite a complicated process. Kim went above and beyond with her excellent customer service. She spent a lot of time with the student making phone calls and helping the student figure out what was going on. Her customer service was so commendable and I would like to express my thankfulness for her willingness to step up and help. You are truly a Rockstar!!!!

Edie Nelson (February)

Nominated by Justin Swank

Edie has been the go to for questions. She is one of the last few staff in the department that has been around when the old guard was around. She has fielded many questions that are training based and she is our savior when it comes to many different things. Edie has been a Rockstar though this COVID process and I know for fact if we didn't have her our department would be less grounded then we are now.

Kelly Lopez (February)

Nominated by Nicole Hauser.

Kelly starts each day with a smile on her face and she is such a welcoming person to talk to each day. She also goes out of her way to get to know any new employees in the athletic department and make them feel welcomed. With the COVID protocols changing so many aspects of athletics, it has added some extra challenges to coaching. Kelly has made sure that she provides guidance and an open door for all of her players. From a players' standpoint, her demeanor has been unwavering and her goal is for the volleyball team to have a great season that they deserve. Amongst her staff, she always brings a good laugh and great conversation to the office. She has integrated a handful of new training activities to help improve their coaching as well. These have included mental health training and other team bonding activities.

Meghan Yerhot (January)

Ms. Yerhot is an exemplary student, colleague, and graduate assistant. She displays all aspects of leadership and quality character. She made me feel comfortable in asking questions and provided an excellent interview experience. I now have the pleasure of collaborating professionally with Ms. Yerhot on the campus food pantry initiative. Ms. Yerhot's compassion for others is truly remarkable. Her determination to help her fellow students has brought this initiative to life and past roadblocks. She has gone above and beyond and made the campus a better more welcoming place for all.

Sara Oestrich (January)

Sara has been a constant during this new normal of COVID-19. She did her work with a smile and a positive attitude every day. She could always be counted on (and still is) to be in the office helping at the front desk or lending a hand to a co-worker. She has a great sense of humor and a strong work ethic and it reflects on the department. Even though we can't see her actual smile due to her face covering, you can always see the smile in her eyes. Since the COVID pandemic Sara has been a mainstay within the HR department. While most employees were working remotely, Sara continued to be the face of human resources for students and employees. Sara provides excellent customer service in assisting both students and employees. In addition for much of the last 6 months she has supported both HR and payroll and has been an excellent team player. Many times she would inquire about other work she could support the teams on and take this on in addition to her normal duties. Her positive attitude is contagious to all she comes in contact with.

Alexander Knudson (January)

Alexander is the Extension Entomological Diagnostician in the Plant Diagnostic Lab. He receives calls (and visits) and kindly talks with people who need help with insect identifications. He also provides pest management strategies to help solve their insect problems in their houses, gardens, and crops. He continues researching things that he does not know to better help our clients. He helps, understands, and works with his coworkers in order to create a nice environment in their lab. Alexander is very good at integrating and treating everyone well, and he loves helping international students when those students visit the lab. He has been doing important and high quality work.

Carrie Anne Platt (January)

Carrie Anne has gone more than above and beyond in her efforts to help faculty manage the shift to HyFlex. This includes everything from running teaching cafes in the summer to meeting individually with faculty to assisting with developing surveys to learn about both student and faculty experiences during COVID. She's a beacon of continuous improvement (always trying to help us improve our teaching) and teamwork. She provides great customer service to our students as well, but I'm particularly focused on her efforts to help faculty through the shift to Hyflex over the summer and her continuing efforts today. She has been amazing.

Briana Nupdal and Smita Garg (January)

With all events cancelled with the ongoing pandemic, Briana and Smita were instrumental in moving the in-person, traditional career fairs to virtual platforms. Their tireless work, with other Career and Advising staff, worked to find the best platform, communicate the information with other campus partners and create tutorials and information for employers to utilize when signing up for the virtual career fairs. Briana and Smita went above and beyond expectations to make sure these events could be held this year in a safe and effective manner to benefit students and employers.

Cate Kratochvil (January)

Cate has been delivering exceptional service for NDSU Libraries and her efforts have been remarkable since the pandemic-imposed measures in mid March. The Library’s continued uninterrupted operations are thanks to Cate and her team who modified their workflows, implemented additional initiatives, and went beyond the call of duty to ensure that NDSU faculty, staff and students have uninterrupted access to library resources, services and spaces. Access Services dealt with several instances of infections but the customer service has never been diminished due to the succession plan that ensured smooth operation regardless of the obstacles. When the Libraries was asked to repurpose one of the most popular collaborative study areas into a classroom, Cate led her team in to move the furniture and provide comprehensive assistance to the institutional effort in support of the HyFlex teaching model. I commend Cate for her efforts and she should be publicly recognized for her dedicated and resourceful commitment to NDSU.

Kim Miller (January)

Kim is the greatest! This past year has been so crazy because of COVID with having to change classrooms, instructors, times dates and sections, etc.... and Kim does it for the whole University!! I don't know anyone who deserves KUDOS more than she does. I can't imagine the volume of emails and changes she gets every day! But she is always quick to respond, follow up and best of all she is ALWAYS in a good mood and super friendly!!! I LOVE working with her! She is a perfect example of what we should all strive for in our work day and our interactions with co-workers!

Dan Nygard (January)

Dan provides guidance to our DNP students with formatting their disquisitions. He volunteers annually to come and speak to students anticipating graduation in May. His discussion is updated every year to reflect any changes. He not only offers but schedules individual meetings with any student that asks. This isn't new since covid- he has been doing the same level of student service for years. The only regret students have is they didn't schedule with him sooner. He is consistently noted by students for his ability to solve issues quickly and professionally. He adds a lot to the success of our students.

2020 Recipients

Milka Singha (December)

As a new faculty working on establishing a productive research group while building a laboratory space, I cannot understate Milka’s efforts and hard work on my behalf. During the last months, I made several purchases to repair some mal-functioning equipment in the laboratory as well as materials required to carry out my research agenda. Unfortunately, these items were being delivered to a campus and a department where everyone is primarily working from home. Milka was instrumental in going to campus to assist me with the delivery of these items. She coordinated times with my graduate students to pick up packages and even dropped them off to my lab or office. Without her efforts, the work that has taken place in my research group over the past month would not have been feasible. I cannot appreciate Milka enough for going beyond her job description.

Patricia Dirk (December)

Patty Dirk works tirelessly to meet the health needs of our student's on a daily basis, but has gone up and beyond with the impact of COVID-19. Student Health Service has started a number of new services, such as Telehealth and symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID testing, while working hand-in-hand with the ND Dept. of Health. She has led the team with solid direction, although the situation with COVID seems to be ever-changing. Staff is very grateful for her leadership and how she has continuously given us kudos for adjusting to the times we are in. Thank-you!

Melissa Lamp (December)

Melissa strives to do the utmost to assist others and maintain professionalism in the office. Countless times she has dropped what she has been working on to help me or others with a question or problem. She is amazing when it comes to thinking a problem through and thinking outside of the box to seek a viable solution. Melissa is able to handle difficult situations in the moment and is always professional. It is important that staff who act behind the scenes be brought to the forefront and get the recognition they deserve. Melissa deserves this recognition as an exemplary employee.

Naomi Marks (December)

Naomi has only been working as a peer mentor in our office for a few months, but she has already made such an impact on her students. Naomi is a social work major who brings strong communication skills, knowledge of resources, and genuine care and concern for each of her mentees. She doesn't shy away from tough conversations when a student is struggling but instead empowers them with empathy, constructive feedback, and authenticity. Naomi always gives her very best self, even during times that she has a lot of her own plate. Naomi juggles multiple campus jobs, her own full-time student schedule, and is a proud mom of three. In our opinion, she's superwoman, and we are so happy to have her on our staff.

Michele Sherman (December)

Michele has tirelessly worked to support and keep the department afloat thru some turbulent times. Her integrity and quality are manifest in terms of how she facilitates the execution of potentially involved processes. When asked, Michele has taken the time to show me every process/detail as much as I desired and would also check back in with me to make sure that I understood said process/matter/etc. Her work with students (both undergrads & grads), makes their lives easier and streamlines their anxieties into productive energies enabling them to be successful to the degree they desired.

Jeffrey Kittilson (December)

Jeff is an amazing asset to the department. Jeff contributes an incredible amount of time and effort to various projects, and has been a coauthor on various talks and publications. He will stay after hours or come in on weekends, especially to make sure that the equipment is working properly. He is always on call for problems ranging from power outages to quick questions. He will also give time supporting our collaborators, even when that is outside of his direct duties. Jeff is a tireless scientist dedicated to accurately reporting data. We are lucky to have someone in our corner who is so dedicated to making our data accurate, repeatable, and error-free. I have worked in many labs, and never seen such high-quality assay results as Jeff has established. He continues to train new students to maintain these high standards.

Janet Sundquist (December)

Janet has worked tirelessly for the benefit of her advisees during the difficult Spring 2020 semester, and to host orientation virtually and into the Fall 2020 semester. She takes on projects for her team, and is truly a caring coworker. Janet is focused on the students experience and continuous improvement. She is such a valuable member of the advising team and her dedication to her work is praiseworthy.

Kirsten Boettcher (December)

Kirsten is one of the tutors whom I supervise at ACE Tutoring. Kirsten comes to each shift with energy and passion, inspiring me, the other tutors, and her students. As a mathematics education major, Kirsten is skilled at breaking down tough concepts into easy to understand pieces. While many students come into ACE saying that they aren't good at math or dislike it, I have seen Kirsten slowly win them over as she makes learning interesting and easy to follow. Since working at ACE, Kirsten has amassed over 500 unique visits from students. We are so grateful to have her on our staff and look forward to seeing her excel as a future mathematics educator!

Anne Johnson (December)

Anne goes absolutely above and beyond for all of our visitors coming to campus and the Office of Admission team. Her customer service is top notch, constantly seeking to give the best experience for anyone she interacts with. Amidst the pandemic, Anne has had to recreate, reorganize, and reinvent an endless lists of events and has done so with kindness and grace. She does the highest quality of work while making sure all staff members feel comfortable with plans. I am constantly impressed by her level of work and her dedication to NDSU!

Terri Porter (December)

Terri really stepped up and took on additional responsibilities during my maternity leave. We are fortunate that she had previously held the job as office manager so was familiar with some tasks, but she had to learn other tasks that were new or some that had changed. My leave also fell over the start of fall semester which is always a busy time and we have had to navigate many different process changes with COVID. She is such a team player and I appreciate her willingness to help out!

David Huber (November)

The Division of Performing Arts has really leaned on Dave's abilities to execute technical needs in and out of our concert facilities—examples include 1. building hard- wired learning pods in several of our practice rooms—allowing student to take virtual music lessons without any latency 2. making our concert facilities into hyflex classrooms and managing them on a daily basis to allow instructors (from all over campus) to conduct successful class sessions, 3. working with outside clients to produce high-quality streamed programming for the community. My description here doesn't present the details, but Dave has been asked to manage and produce results on demand—and has done so successfully and cheerfully. Dave is an excellent team-member, well like by his clients, faculty, students and has been a terrific addition to the Performing Arts team.

Jim Sellner (September)

I want to nominate Jim Sellner for his assistance on a recent migration of a service (Jamf) recently hosted on-premise to a cloud hosted instance. Jamf is a core service utilized to manage Apple devices supported by IT. His dedication to this task was outstanding. He worked diligently to communicate any changes needed to users and departments and followed up on any systems that weren't being migrated in a timely manner. His teamwork is greatly appreciated. It was due to his efforts that this migration went so smooth and in a timely manner.

Wendy Leach (September)

Wendy is amazing! She greets everyone with a giant smile and immediately asks, "How can I help?". She has a heart of a servant, and goes the extra mile to provide exceptional support to our faculty and students. Although Wendy is incredibly busy throughout her day, she always takes time for people. She makes people feel valued by asking questions about how they are doing and she remembers to follow up on previous conversations. Wendy is well-organized and does quality work for our department. Her ability to do her job with excellence while providing an incredibly welcoming atmosphere in the office make her an ideal candidate for the Campus Kudos award!

Sharley Kurtz (February)

One of my Blackboard courses did not copy over correctly for the Spring 2020 semester and students did not have access to critical documents and videos to prepare for Skills Lab. Upon submitting a report with the IT Help Desk, Shar was quick to respond and immediately started investigating. In less than 2 days, Shar (with the help of Lorna) had identified the issue and provided a solution. Shar demonstrated high quality service and teamwork, discussing the issue with me via phone and assuring me that the problem would be resolved. I don't know what I would have done without her! Her quick response and diligent effort to resolve the issue alleviated any stress I may have had. I believe that Shar is extremely deserving of this recognition. Thank you for everything, Shar!

Cory Schlack (February)

It is with great excitement that I nominate Cory Schlack for the Campus Kudos recognition. Periodically Cory and I have the opportunity to collaborate while working with prospective engineering students. Over the past few weeks we have been corresponding with a student from Davies High School in trying to arrange for a campus visit. I brought Cory into the email conversation as I wanted to make sure that the student would have an opportunity to connect with Cory while on campus. Not only did Cory help me coordinate the visit, he also accompanied the student and her parents to my office and engaged in a wonderful conversation that helped the student get a thorough understanding of the opportunities at NDSU. Cory's appreciation and fondness for his very own experiences as an NDSU student a few years ago definitely came through during this visit. Thank you Cory... your efforts and enthusiasm are appreciated.

Officer Ben Wenger (January)

Throughout the entire school year, the Residence Hall Directors at NDSU take turns serving in an "on-call" rotation to respond to student and facility emergencies in the residence halls. During November, I had one very busy week of being on-call. In particular, I responded 4 instances on a Friday night that all required police officers assistance. At 3 of those instances, I ended up working with Officer Ben Wenger. One time to assist an unresponsive student, another due to the scent of marijuana, and a third situation that I can best describe as "absolute chaos". This last situation required a lot of police assistance - and Ben was the officer who took point and helped me work with students, paramedics, and doing a little detective work - all between 2 and 4 in the morning. Ben is an exemplary police officer. He talks to students on their level, is calm yet firm with students who are in trouble, and does a nice job helping students see how their actions have consequences without making them feel like less of a person. I really appreciated Ben's patience and professionalism when we responded to all these incidents, and he truly deserves some kudos.

Mark Geigle (January)

We had 9 inches of snow over the weekend and Mark was here bright and early clearing the sidewalks around Bison Court. I needed to clear the snow around the state fleet van that we use so I asked him if he could let me borrow his shovel sometime today. He said he could take care of it. I told him, No, it's not his job! He had enough to do with all the snow. The next thing I knew, he had cleared the snow from the van. Come to think of it - I think he has done this for me a few times over the years. Thank you Mark! It is much appreciated!

2019 Recipients

Karla Haug (January)

Karla Haug is such an asset to the university. She is extremely knowledgeable about policies and procedures. Karla is a phenomenal academic advisor, and her students can rely on her to provide accurate degree progress information. If there is ever a question or concern I have about a nursing student's graduation requirements, she is always there to assist or provide insight. I truly don't know what I would do without her in the nursing department. Thank you Karla for being awesome at what you do!!!

Stacey Winter, Casie Ewalt, and Jane Busko (March)

I want to thank Stacey and her team for their partnership and willingness to do "whatever it took" to make the transition of package delivery to the Bookstore a success. Stacey and her team completed work orders, checked on our progress, provided ongoing training and assisted us during the back to school rush. This kind of pride in their jobs and willingness to offer their time and talent to us is much appreciated. Thank you for all you do for us!

Ben Benard (March)

Thanks to Ben for helping out with the students' MITRE CTF competition participation. MITRE CTF is a national competition that is run by the MITRE corporation (CTF stands for ‘capture the flag’).  Basically, it allows students to demonstrate their cybersecurity skills and knowledge, on a national stage.  We run a local event for the competition on campus during a period of time set by the event organizers. Ben went out and got all of the food to setup the event. First, he got the snacks from a grocery store and then he collected dinner for everyone from a local restaurant. The students said the food selection (which included a lot of healthy options!) has never been better. Absent Ben’s involvement, it would have just been me running it.  Ben collecting the food and beverages was extraordinarily helpful, as it meant that I didn’t have to leave during the event. What is most notable about this is that Ben works in Architecture / Landscape Architecture and the event is run by the Computer Science Department. Ben’s help improved the quality of the event by allowing us to serve better food (i.e., not just from one of the few places that delivers) and allowing me to remain present to deal with issues that could have arisen during this time.

Dale Kendall (May)

Dale is the second floor custodian for the Quentin Burdick Building; however, he is the go-to person for when anyone in the building needs help with almost anything unusual. Dale goes above and beyond in doing his own work, maintaining the second floor, with an extremely positive attitude. He also always helps when people need extra things cleaned or need help moving things around the building. I also understand that he frequently helps out when setting up for special events, such as the annual fundraiser for United Way.

Kelly Paynter (June)

Since I started in the Department of Communication in 2015, Kelly Paynter has been a blessing. She has helped me acclimate to the department by answering my questions regarding department policies, course scheduling, IT concerns, and college travel reimbursement. On a personal level, she even has been kind enough to consider my allergy to gluten when we have department potlucks, which I appreciate dearly! More recently, she has been a tremendous help helping me manage a small grant I was awarded to bring a scholar to campus to speak for Women’s History Month. She helped me understand the process of “hiring” an outside consultant (filling out the appropriate paperwork, showing me how to secure airfare and accommodations for the consultant). I am proud to report the event was a success! I want Kelly to be recognized for the part she played in the process.

Kenard Booker (September)

As an advisor for several engineering students, I am fortunate to be able to get to know many of my advisees on a personal level and learn about their successes and struggles. When the opportunity presents itself, I often times reach out to introduce my students to others on campus who might be able to assist. On many occasions, I have reached out to Kenard Booker for his assistance in getting a student the help he/she needs. This morning I was working with a Fall '19 transfer student who was recently denied a diversity waiver and I sensed that he was banking on that waiver to help him with his educational expenses. I called over to Kenard and gave a brief description of the student's situation and Kenard took it from there. A couple of messages that Kenard repeated to the student was that "we want you to be successful" and "we want you to earn your degree." Each and every word that Kenard relayed to the student was positive, reassuring, and built confidence in this young man. He came in my office a bit deflated because of being denied the diversity waiver but left my office on cloud nine. I appreciate Kenard and the work that he does so very much.

Nathan Johnson (October)

I would like to nominate Nathan Johnson-Technical Services Manager for Finance and Administration for Campus Kudos. Nathan helped problem solve a computer student timeslip issue between two departments and made the solution meet everyone's need. Nathan demonstrated Customer Service by sitting in at meetings between the Center for Child Development and the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office, asking open-ended questions about our needs. He developed an on-line timeslip process easy and effective for student use. He even brought in a student to check out the process for any glitches that may occur! Nathan demonstrated Continuous Improvement by working many hours on a computer timeslip process that was confidential for students, easy to enter time in/out and would total student work hours accurately. Nathan demonstrated Teamwork by asking deeper questions of both departments, was always approachable and modeled a consistent positive attitude that there was a solution to the problem. Nathan achieved the goal of developing an effective computer process for work study timeslips that was efficient, accurate in totaling student work hours, easy to understand and explain to others, and allowed confidential timeslips to be printed off by each student. He was my HERO and just smiled humbly when I thanked him over and over again!

Nicole Askew (November)

Nicole has been thrown curve ball after curve ball for planning Homecoming. Every time something does not go the way it is planned or plans have to change, she has handled each situation with grace and professionalism. She has worked many late nights these last few weeks to make sure Homecoming goes off without a hitch. I am so proud to say that I work with Nicole and to call her a friend. With Homecoming week upon us, many of us are able to enjoy the festivities. However, we sometimes forget about the amount of work it takes to design such a massive amount of programming. Nicole Askew works with both Campus Attractions and the Volunteer Network, meaning she has to coordinate a majority of the Homecoming festivities with not just one student group but two. Working with students is a great chance to develop them, but it can also take considerably more time. Nicole is patient and constructive when working with her students and guides them through the processes. She never complains about late evenings or what's on her plate and is continually brainstorming ways that processes could become more efficient. Her attitude and spirit is infectious and generates other staff who want to volunteer and support her initiatives. She's so deserving of some kudos!

Robin Hellman (November)

Robin Hellman is one of the most capable professionals that I've ever had a privilege to work with. Her dedicated and thoughtful approach to dealing with the day-to-day challenges exceeds the expectations and it ensures that our department meets and exceeds the desired customer services expectations. She is timely in completion of her tasks and shares her talents generously with others to provide a wide range of support duties that may be needed. Above all, she puts the students’ needs first and is regularly moving the boundaries of the services excellence while being collegial, professional and friendly. Way to go!

Teresa Enderson (November)

Teresa consistently goes above & beyond to support Department of Architecture & Landscape Architecture operations, but two recent events stand out. 70 students & faculty were scheduled to spend a week in Miami to study urban design when a hurricane cancelled the event two days prior to their scheduled departure. Teresa spent hours negotiating and rescheduling all of the required logistics so the students & faculty could safely make their trip without additional costs to the Department. Teresa also coordinated a key Landscape Architecture accreditation visit last week in which the accreditation team recognized her vital contributions to the performance of the Department. Teresa consistently takes initiative to ensure faculty, students, and staff are all working together smoothly and efficiently; no easy task in a challenging fast-paced environment.

Mark Lofgren (November)

Mark deserves Campus Kudos because he goes above and beyond in his position as the Experiential Education & E*Value Coordinator for Pharmacy Practice, the Experiential Education Office, the students, and the Pharmacy rotation sites and preceptors. He helps everyone in all of these areas in any way he can (usually with a smile). Mark goes to conferences and has weekly interactions with E*Value to always improve his "customer" service. He is an asset to NDSU, the PharmD program, and should be recognized as he is the definition of teamwork.

Mathew Skoy (November)

Although I have only been with NDSU for a short period of time, I have been very impressed with Matthew and his interface with the students. Whether it be front and center at homecoming or gathering students for various initiatives i.e. hikes etc he is active and sets a great example. His leadership is contagious to others as he has worked with many departments in team building events, something that is outside of the scope of his normal responsibilities. His actions promote student retention and satisfaction throughout NDSU. I think he knows 90% of our students by name when he sees them. He has an uncanny way of connecting with everyone. His organization of the "Professional's Group" meetings has helped provide connections through the community with all staff, faculty and students. He has an uncanny presence, as you can hear him coming from a far distance, which allows him to connect with anyone. We should all be proud to have Matthew as a part of our team here at NDSU and I highly recommend him for this Kudos award!!

Sandra Aaser (November)

Sandy is a custodian at Renaissance hall. She has only been here 7 months but in that time she has cleaned things that have never been cleaned before. She is constantly on the go and is always looking for ways to do a better job. She is a great team player by helping others when help is needed. She interacts well with the students and staff. Customer service must be her middle name. Sandy does a great job and I think she needs to be recognized for her great work.

Lisa Hauk (November)

Lisa Hauck embodies the spirit of NDSU: she’s a hard worker, kind to everyone, and committed to promoting academic excellence. Lisa’s enthusiasm for her work is contagious, and her unfailing professionalism is inspirational. As someone who always reads the fine print, does her research, and considers multiple perspectives, Lisa is the perfect fit for her role at the university. Students, faculty, and staff across campus know that they can count on Lisa to get the job done well. As a member of Lisa’s team in the Graduate School, I know I can count on Lisa for guidance and encouragement, and Lisa never hesitates to jump in take on some of my workload when I need help. Lisa’s commitment to her job and to NDSU make her deserving of a campus kudos.

Nicholas Munsch (November)

I would like to nominate Nic Munsch for a Campus Kudos Award. Nic is a peer tutor at ACE and for every shift, he is positive, kind, friendly, and hardworking. Nic exhibits remarkable customer service skills and easily builds rapport with his students. Nic volunteers to do a variety of tasks outside of his regular tutoring shifts and is eager to lend a hand whenever and wherever he is needed. Nic is an absolute delight to have on staff, and I want him to know how much I appreciate all that he does for our campus community and department!

Cathy Powers (December)

Cathy is a great help and friendly in helping to find where packages are suppose to go (packages coming in with PO's). One instance of her going above and beyond that stuck in my mind was- We needed some lumber for carpentry and moorhead menards was out of stock, however Detroit Lakes menards had it. Cathy Picked it up and brought it back as she going by it on the weekend.

Emma Marshall (December)

Emma is an amazing Hall Director on campus. She has built strong relationships with all of her staff, faculty in residence and coworkers. She is always there to support everyone, with whatever they are going through. Recently, one of Emma's students came to her with big life issues that they needed to work through. Emma was patient, kept their confidentiality, and helped the student make a plan with how to work through their emotions and feelings. She is really there to support students. I have personally been struggling with a challenging academic year and Emma has been there to support me through it all. She checks in frequently, asking if there is anything she can do to help. She even stepped up to offer changing responsibilities so that way I could take extra time to work through my own issues. This is who Emma is. If it wasn't me that was struggling, she would be there for any one of our coworkers to see what she could do to help. I have been extremely grateful for Emma and all the hard work she does to make our campus a better place. She really deserves some Kudos for all she does.

Michele Rolewitz (December)

Michele Rolewitz has worked for NDSU Financial Aid and Scholarships many years (30+ I believe). I've only had the wonderful opportunity to work with her for the past 6 years. Michele is quite knowledgeable in this financial aid environment which can be ever changing and quite challenging at best. Michele comes to work every day with a smile on her face and a tremendously positive attitude. She responds to requests for her help in the area of loan processing (among many of her other assignments) with a positive attitude and energetic teamwork values. I appreciate Michele more than I am able to tell her in person. You see, Michele is deaf so much of our conversations take place in emails and IMs. Being deaf doesn't slow her down, in fact, she also teaches a class so others can learn how to perform sign language. She is a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a friend. She deserves much more than a simple thank you for all that she does for her family and for our department. A simple thank you doesn't seem be to enough. Please consider this valuable woman for an NDSU Campus Kudos award! Thank you.

Nate Robideau (December)

We had a student just moved into University Village apartments. This area is different as cable and internet are provided through Sparklight not ITS. From the get go this tenant had issues with his internet. He bought a router to try get wifi, didn’t help. He called Sparklight several times and also our office asking for help. Our help is limited as all we can do is call Sparklight too-which ends up in a call center, no one local for help. For 2 weeks he had issues with no internet. I called Nate. He set up an appointment with the tenant to come to his home, he then talked to him about what is going on. Nate explained why the equipment he owned was not working and told him what works well. He even left his phone number so the tenant could call if he had more issues. Taking the time to show and explain really helped calm the situation. Most of our tenants moving in have never had to deal with any kind of problems whether it is heat, air, internet or cable- in their homes and so many just don’t know what to do or trouble shoot. Thank you Nate for taking the time!

2018 Recipients

Francisco Hidalgo

"I want to thank Francisco, who came to install my new computer and recognized an issue I was having with logging in to the network.  He took me seriously instead of attributing my problem to forgetting my passwords (which happened a few times before when I reported what was going on).  He went back to IT and sought additional help for me.  He then followed up with me and let me know he was working to fix the problem."

Lincoln Bathie

"Lincoln identified an issue I was having (my cell phone repeatedly attempting to log in to a deleted network) and he helped to remove the deleted network from my phone, thereby fixing this horribly annoying and unproductive problem."

Nicolette Rapp

 

"Nicolette started her journey as the Assistant Registrar in the fall of 2017.  In the short time she has been in this role, she has continued to encourage teamwork and collaboration within the transfer team that she supervises, the office of Registration & Records as a whole, and across campus.  Her dedication to her team and this office has not gone unnoticed!  Thank you for all that you do and for creating such a positive work environment!"

Shayla Durick

"Shayla is one of six analysts employed by the Office of Registration and Records and has been in her role for over 15 years.  As the newest analyst, she has been one of my biggest mentors.  She is a very patient trainer who is supportive and encouraging.  She is always open to new ideas, but has a wealth of knowledge, thanks to her years of service.  Not only is she graceful with her colleagues and coworkers, the way she interacts with students is so honorable.  She is welcoming and patient and always has a smile on her face.  She knows her work in and out - making her work with students completely seamless.  Shayla is often quiet and humble, so sometimes her hard work may go unnoticed.  However, she plays an integral role in degree progress, completion, and posting.  I am grateful for her mentorship and guidance.  Thank you Shayla!"

Kim Miller

Kim with Registration and Records is a Godsend!  When trying to manage registration concerns, and I have had MANY this year, she is immensely helpful!  She is always professional, prompt, and kind.  I am truly thankful to have her as a resource for information and assistance.  She does a tremendous job!

Shelley Horne

"Shelley has stepped up this semester when I was looking for someone to teach my Micro 480/680 bacterial physiology course because I am currently the faculty advisor for the State Board of Higher Education.  She is given all the lectures and will administer the tests, while I am still doing the active learning exercises.  Bacterial physiology is a rather complex topic that involves knowledge of metabolic pathways, gene regulation, and many 'real life' scenarios, such as the microbiome or biofilm, which already gets into microbial ecology.  Shelley is tireless working on this course, while maintaining her research project and still supervising graduate and undergraduate students in the lab.  I appreciate her effort beyond words and hope for a positive outcome of this nomination!"

Richard Frovarp

"Richard created script to help send out invite and reminders for SROI and a script to close the SROI and create raw data for me to make the workload better for the SROI.  He worked long hours to make sure that it was working correctly and responded to my questions super fast.  With the new page that closed and created the raw data, I got the record amount of surveys done in the normal time."

Cheryl Long

"I wanted to commend a staff member in going above and beyond the call of duty.  I asked Cheryl, our Minard 4th floor maintenance person, how to dispose of my halogen desk lamp.  She asked why I was getting rid of it because I use it exclusively in my office for work - The overhead lights are terrible - and it was an expensive lamp at one time.  I could not find a replacement bulb, so that was why it was getting the old heave-ho.  Cheryl asked me to wait before I purchased another lamp.  On her own time, she tracked a bulb down going from store to store in town, bought it, and then fixed the lamp.  I found the now useful lamp on my desk, where I hope I get another 20 years of service out of it.  By the way, this is not the first time she has done something for us that exceeds her job description, which is one of the reasons why she is a joy to work with."

Linda Charlton Gunderson

"The person in Microbiological Sciences responsible for SROI evaluations resigned last summer.  As a recently appointed Interim Head, I was not aware that we needed to submit requests for SROI evaluation of courses offered by the department.  I only discovered the problem during finals week and contacted Linda.  She was not in her office but I left a message and she called me back immediately from home.  She could have said tough luck, but instead she said that she would fix it and not to worry.  I sent her a long list of courses and she began working on sending out the evaluation requests that afternoon.  The last email I received from her was at 8:45pm.  She sent a list of all the evaluations that had been sent out along with a count of the students who had already responded.  By the next morning, everything was complete and the crisis was averted.  As a faculty member, I can't tell you how much I appreciate Linda's helpful, positive attitude and great work ethic.  She makes me happy and proud to be a Bison!"

Danelle Walker

"I’d like to nominate Danelle Walker for a Campus Kudos Award.  Danelle is the Account Technician in the Entomology Department, and I’ve known her since I’ve arrived in 2008. There are several behaviors and traits I value about Danelle.  First, she is excellent at her job. Dealing with accounts is demanding and detailed, and Danelle makes it look easy.  She is always willing to provide assistance (usually immediately), and goes out of her way to make things less confusing for others.  I know that if I have questions, she’ll provide me with the info I need, or connect me to the people I need to talk with.  I also respect Danelle’s high level of integrity, not only with regard to accounts, but also in a general sense.  She is a person who, unlike others, does not allow gossip or personal feelings to impact her professionalism.  The top-notch contributions she makes to this campus have also been recognized by others, as she has been nominated for CAFSNR awards several times.  Bravo Danelle!"

2017 Recipients

Heather Higgins-Dochtermann

"Ever since joining our office in August 2016, Heather has been the catalyst for us bonding as a team.  From coordinating birthday recognitions (complete with cards and lunch outings) to encouraging us to showcase our "Betty Crocker" baking skills during the holidays, she keeps us laughing (not just smiling) and sharing with each other.  She has overwhelming responsibilities in her position as Institutional Equity Investigator, yet she ALWAYS has a smile, funny story, and hearty laugh for the office to enjoy.  Kudos to Heather!  We really appreciate everything she does for us in the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty & Equity."

Michael Aho

"Michael assisted me with a very complicated EMPLID/student ID issue that had been going on for eight months.  He was the third person to try and help me with it, and the first one to stick with it through to the end.  From the time he began to help me until it was completed, it took 2 months.  He checked in with me regularly, was always kind and helpful, and never seemed to mind when I asked a million questions, sometimes the same question twice.  Every set back he found a solution, and did everything he could to make the process as smooth and painless for me as possible.  He did a fantastic job and I am so thankful he was finally able to help me find a solution.  Everything he did was above and beyond."

Viet Doan

 

"The NDSU Bookstore has many opportunities to work with Viet.  He is one of the most conscientious co-workers that any of us has ever worked with.  If you contact him, he responds in a timely manner, he is very knowledgeable, and pleasant with each interaction.  We give him "kudos" each time we are given the chance to work with him!"

Wendy Leach

"Wendy is the secretary in Biological Sciences and she goes above and beyond on a daily basis.  I can't count the number of times that she has saved me by making sure that I had all of my ducks in a row.  Wendy makes sure I have ordered class materials, submitted my grades, turned in all of my paperwork for visiting speakers, etc.  She is amazing!  She is also such a warm and delightful and helpful person.  I want her to know how appreciated she is."  

Anthony Waldenmaier

"Anthony is a graduate student in the Civil and Environmental Department.  He is a great asset to this department as he has gone above and beyond to help the department to fill in whenever needed due to an unexpected absence of a faculty member.  Even during a time crunch, he worked relentless hours to grade final exams and submit final grades to be entered for a class he wasn't even teaching.  He has been the go to guy for undergraduates that have sought his advice and expertise anywhere from courses being taught, steel bridge, and concrete canoe.  The department can't thank him enough for his contributions."

Kim Matzke-Ternes

"Old Main is an old building.  We no longer have daytime custodial, so Kim sweeps the floors of the basement every week.  I found this out when she was sweeping up dead beetle-bugs this morning.  That is going above and beyond her job as administrative assistant to the VP for Finance and Administration!  She is awesome!"

Terry Mulvaney

"Terry is the smiling face of Facilities Management as soon as you walk in the door of the Thorson Maintenance Center.  She always provides both internal staff/faculty and external customers with exceptional customer service.  Recently she has taken on a project to fix some documents within the Document Imaging system and did a great job and was willing to do it without any hesitation.  When she has down time, she will ask others in the office if she can help them out even though that's not expected of her.  Terry is a great asset to the Facilities Management Department and goes above and beyond her job duties and strives to be the best she can be!"

Vince Anderson

"I am a faculty member in Biological Sciences and I was unable to install SPSS (a statistics program) on my computer.  Vince Anderson went above and beyond to research the problem and help me get it sorted out quickly so that I would be able to get my data analyzed while I was away.  I really, really appreciated his help."

Michael Maassel

"Dr. Michael Maassel saw that the handicap parking spaces outside of our building have been very poorly maintained.  There is often a ridge of snow from the plows left behind which blocks the path of the handicap parking spots.  After several phone calls from staff members to request the snow and ice be removed, nothing happened.  Recently, Mike saw how much ice and snow was in those spaces and took action that resulted in those parking spots be cleared, sand, and salted.  His consideration at all times is appreciated but this particular action was extremely meaningful and I would like to see him recognized for his effort."

Michael Marmorstein

"I would like to nominate Michael Marmorstein for the campus kudos award.  Michael is a graduate student here on campus.  In his spare time, he likes to play the piano in the memorial union.  Mary Asheim heard him play several times throughout the year.  Mary forwarded his name and contact information to the members-at-large committee because we were looking for someone to play music for the Day of Honor event.  Michael donated his time and gift to play music before, during, and after the event.  He even learned the school song for us, so we could sing this in unison at the event.  We appreciate Michael and that is why I am nominating him."

Sonja Fuchs

"Sonja, web technology specialist in the Ag Communication Department, is always so wililng to assist couty Extension and Research Extension Center staff develop and update their webpages.  Helping Extension and Agriculture develop marketing strategies for their onine and social media content is another big part of Sonja's efforts.  That includes helping faculty and staff write content for Facebook pages, blogs, Twitter and other social media platforms to encourage people to make use of Agriculture and Extension information.  She analyzes this usage data and helps faculty and staff understand what generated the most views, interaction or behavior changes, as well as what marketing strategies and educational efforts didn't work as well as hoped.

She is passionate about her job and helping others achieve the most impressive, effective website.  Sonja has been known to drop everything to help faculty and staff in getting a file uploaded or a document created on the web, even during frustrating crunch times, with patience and understanding.  Sonja asks good questions to better understand what we are trying to achieve and helps us think outside the box.  She enthusiastically does research to find better solutions.  She always keeps in mind the end result, as well as how it will present itself.  She strives to make our website implementation easy and professional."

Jacob Dummer

"Jacob started working for the WDC dining when he was a freshman.  He became a student supervisor.  Jacob is always willing to lend a hand in any area of operations.  He is not afraid to work.  He is always on time, works hard throughout his shift, and does a great job teaching new students the operation from pizza, grill, hotline, prep, breakfast, and dish room.  Jacob catches on quick; show him one time and he knows how to do it.  He is always asking what needs to be done next when finished with a project.  The employees at WDC will definitely miss this young man when he graduates.  Jacob is a team player, everyone at the WDC Dining enjoys him on the team, cause like I said, he is a hard worker and he's always willing to lend a hand.  Thanks for all you attribute to NDSU.  A great big thank you from WDC Dining crew for all your hard work this past few semesters!"

Karen Jevning

"Karen has been the Recruiting Coordinator in the Career Center for over 15 years.  She shows incredible dedication to students, employers, faculty, and co-workers each day by never letting a call or email go un-returned and doing her best to create as many opportunities as she can to connect students with employers.  Over the past five years alone, she has welcomed 853 employers to campus to interview over 7,600 students.  Many of these interviews have led to internships and full-time, post-graduation employment.  This truly is an incredible feat.  

She always goes the extra mile when a student misses a deadline to make sure the employer receives their application material.  She wants students to succeed professionally and some of her best days occur when she hears that a student was hired by their dream employer.

She is a co-worker that you can always count on for her dependability, positivity, and work ethic.  She will never leave you in a pinch and truly cares about the well-being of others.  I am so lucky to have been able to work with her for over 15 years and look forward to the next 10!"

2016 Recipients

Caleb Larson

"Caleb is a student employee at the West Dining Center.  He has been employed with us for the past couple of semesters.  He is majoring in computer science and it shows.  If we have a problem with the ice-cream machines, he has been helping clean them, so knows functions of the pieces before putting the machines back together.  He likes to problem solve and is quite good at it.  All the full time staff love his 'get and go' mindset.  He has worked all areas of operation and is very good training in new students.  Caleb is always very friendly to everyone.  He said he loves coming to work even when he is tired because of the friendly employees; almost feels like family.  All of the employees feel this young man deserves some recognition because of the hard work he does on every shift.  Caleb, here is a big Kudos for all you do daily."

Lincoln Bathie

"I recently had the pleasure to work with Lincoln in ITS on some email issues I was experiencing, and I can't say enough good things about him.  His service was outstanding, but more importantly, he was just a joy to work with.  He was knowledgeable, personable, patient, and thorough.  He spent a great deal of time attending to and ultimately fixing my email issues, and went above and beyond to ensure that my services would continue working properly, even identifying and addressing additional issues of which I hadn't previously been aware.  I think he deserves the Campus Kudos award for the quality of service he provides and the friendly, customer-oriented manner in which he provides it.  He's definitely an asset to our campus community!"

Frankie Halter

"Frankie is a student employee at the West Dining Center.  She was very shy when she first joined the WDC staff, quiet but a hard worker.  This year she has come out of her shell and excelled into quite the little go-getter.  She has a shift working side by side with the morning cooks. She has learned how to make big batch soups and on her shifts has taken over the role of making the soups for the day.  The cooks look forward to the days she works, as she is a big help and they get a lot of prep work done for the big meals.  Frankie is well rounded, has learned lots of different positions, and is readily placed when she arrives to start her working day.  She always comes to work with a big smile on her face.  ...Frankie has applied to be a student supervisor next semester and I am sure she will get the position and do a great job leading and teaching other students the roles of feeding fellow students good quality food.  We all wish the very best for her.  She is a hard worker and does a great job, always lending a hand where a hand is needed.  Thanks for all you do when you are on the clock."

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Ward

"Lizzy has become a valued addition to the WDC Dining Center.  She joined us about 5 semesters ago and has blossomed into a student supervisor.  She has great customer service when serving students and staff on the hot line, always greeting everyone with a friendly hello.  This semester she has been training in other students, she is all about teamwork.  If Liz notices an area that needs attending, she will jump in to make sure items are available for the customers.  Liz gets along with everyone.  Always greets everyone with a friendly hello when walking in to work...  Liz is our singer, she is always singing a cheerful song.  She has a beautiful voice and it makes others happy to hear Liz sing at work.  ...Liz tries to make it easy for International student employees who do not understand English or items they are not familiar with, by showing them what the item is and saying it.  ...Thanks for all the great team work teaching other students the areas at work."  

Brian Miller

"I would like to recognize Brian for going above and beyond in working collaboratively with the NDSU Card Center.  Brian is the brains behind much of what we do.  He constantly makes us look good by solving complex IT issues.  He is the guy that makes it look easy as my head is spinning.  Brian is always calm & patient in the face of our urgency.  Brian jumps in and helps whenever asked; no matter if it is the 100th time I've asked.  During a software update in March, Brian faced very complex situations of his own but took the time to work collaboratively and help us out on more than one occasion.  Thank you Brian for all your efforts and willingness to help!"

Richard Gunderson

"Richard Gunderson is a custodian in the Memorial Union and I have had hundreds of interactions with him over the course of my 20 years employed at NDSU.  He is always helpful and gracious with the many last minute room set up requests he receives.  Even when the requests are a major inconvenience to him, he goes out of his way to be helpful.  He never complains or makes me feel bad about forgetting to include the details on the reservation.  His dedication and service are inspiring to me and he is a great example of why NDSU is such a great place to work and to learn."

Anna Johnson


Pictured: Anna Johnson and Rosie Wagner.

"Anna is a student manager at the West Dining Center.  She was a student employee before accepting the student manager position.  She is a valuable team player.  Jumping out on the floor from the office to help if staff shortage.  Everyone likes Anna, she comes to work with a smile on her face even when she is not feeling the greatest.  This year she is a senior and will be graduating soon with a dietician degree.  She will be greatly missed, at the WDC Dining Center.  The students and full time staff, all love her disposition, great to work with.  She is fun, witty, and always on the go.  Anna has a very busy schedule, on the run all the time.  Takes that extra minute if asked a question.  I wish her the best for her future, she will go far in life because of her great attitude.  I would like to nominate her for this award to show my appreciation for all she has done for Dining Services."

Team Cyber


Pictured: CeCe Rohwedder, Amber Rasche, Tran Brunsberg, Jeff Gimbel, and Theresa Semmens.

"Amber, Tran, and Jeff are part of the ND Cyber Security Conference, an annual event that is held each year during spring break.  The planning for this event takes a full year and involves many different components and facets.  The planning, organizational, and networking skills of these three individuals is top notch.  They pay attention to most minute of details, which helps to make this conference look effortless and easy.  Without their expertise and assistance, this conference would not be of as high a caliber as it is.  They each deserve kudos and accolades for the effort and the dedication they give of themselves.  They are always cheerful, smiling, and willing to go the extra mile."

Miranda Simon

 
Pictured: Rosie Wagner and Miranda Simon

"Miranda is an outstanding student employee.  She brings a smile to everyone's face when she comes to work.  She is involved in a lot of different campus events.  Miranda carries a heavy load and has a smile always along with a great wit about her.  She is a civil engineering student.  Besides her heavy school load, she is very busy with a heavy work load and she is very appreciative.  I love that she has strong family values also.  Her grandfather calls her every weekend.  Miranda has been a great asset to WDC Dining staff.  She has taken international student's to her home for the holidays.  All of the students working in dining at WDC and some employees from the R like working with Miranda.  She deserves this award for bringing smiles to all employees when she enters work.  She is a dedicated student, who has a lot of potential.  She will go far in life because of her great outlook on life and great attitude."

Mike Dirk

 
Pictured: Mike Dirk

"We owe Mike a bit of thanks!  Mike is always there to assist and give advice during our projects.  He went above and beyond recently when he helped us locate a temporary storage site for one of our off-site sales units.  We had to move this HUGE unit from the FargoDome and were unable to find a place to store it until Mike helped us.  Mike worked with an academic department that controls the space and got us the permission we needed.  He didn't need to do this but we really appreciate his ability and willingness to assist us."

Jane Hagen


Pictured: Lori Askew, Jane Hagen, and Carla Gross

 

"In December of each year, the School of Nursing has a pinning event for the graduating nursing students. It is held the Friday of finals week. I was in charge of the ceremony this past December. On Tuesday of that week, I received a call telling me to come home as my brother was in the hospital - where he died two days later. There were many details that still needed attending to with the pinning ceremony. My co-worker, Jane, hugged me and assured me that she would handle those details. It was a relief for me to take off for Minot knowing that the pinning ceremony would be in very capable hands. All of us in the School of Nursing are very fortunate to have Jane in our office and she really stepped up to the plate and helped me with everything during this very difficult time for me. She is well deserving of this award. Thank you."

2015 Recipients

Brigit Sprenger

Nominated by a parent; submitted by Jeff Jacobs: Jeff writes, the following is an excerpt from an email I received regarding the customer service experience that Brigit provided.  The parent wrote: We were hugely blessed to be able to meet with Brigit Sprenger, and the substance of information and the helpful, meaningful guidance that we received during the meeting was extraordinary.  Profound impact for both Joe and me.  Through Brigit's expertise, concise guidance, and specific information that Joe needed to know about his financial aid status pertaining to his education status and future goals and plans, Joe was able to move forward with choices, actions, and decisions.  With that said, I would recommend Brigit for a Campus Kudos.

CoE Tech Support Team

The CoE Tech Support team has consistently raised the bar for customer service.  They have gone above and beyond their duties.  Recently, they have had to deal with moving computers multiple times due to renovations in the Architecture and Ehly buildings.  They have had to move into storage, move out of storage, set temporary computer labs, request IP Addresses, and networking all in a very short time frame. They have also had to deal with power outages during the time frame of new electrical work being completed in the CIE building.  I had to work from another area with no access to the domain and every time I asked for a file they were most obliging in getting me the information that I needed in a very short time.  I can't thank them enough for their hard work and dedication to customer service.

The team consists of Bruce Horton, Steven Gruver, Joshua Abrams, Walker Brandt, Michael Schmitt, and Aric MacDonald

Jayme Pfeiffer

Over the past several months, Jayme has assisted us with the implementation of our mobile point of sale operation.  Part of this operation requires a MIFI device which falls under Jayme's umbrella.  Jayme worked with our team via several emails and phone calls and worked with our vendor partner to make sure he got us the right device.  Jayme made sure all specifications were met and walked us through several points of confusion.  We truly appreciate his help and guidance during this process.  Thanks Jayme!

Jesse Ostrander

I have been gone a lot from the lab over the past few months and Jesse has kept it all together making sure nothing is left to do when I get back.  He puts in overtime and works extra hard to make sure everything gets done so I don't have to worry about it when I get back.  This is remarkable because the lab really needs two diagnosticians during the busy summer months.  But when I am gone and there is only one, he does the work of two.  He is a great diagnostician too.

Matt Chaussee

Matt once again helped me with tracking baseline safety training for all of our 110 RA's.  This meant running a report multiple times in July and August to get updated lists.  He is so gracious about it.  He even sent me a list when he knew he was going to be out of town.  I think I am done bugging Matt for awhile but I will need his help again next summer.  Thanks Matt!

Robin Hellman

Robin is the administrative support specialist for the libraries.  She consistently goes above and beyond to provide excellent customer service.  She is always in a great mood and smiling.  And no matter how much she has to do that day or that moment, she always makes time to stop and hear your requests.  No one answers an email faster than her and I know I can rely on Robin to have or find the answer to almost any question I throw her way.  Just today I asked her to put in 4 work orders and/or order an item for my unit.  She accomplished that all in light speed.  And it's a Monday.

Melissa Lamp

Melissa has taken on the role of coordinating 2 dean searches with schedules and logistics that are happening at the same time frame.  This has created a great deal of extra work and stress handling numerous people's schedules and requests.  She has completed the tasks gracefully and professionally while getting everyone what is needed and making their tasks easier to accomplish.  Her work is very much appreciated in this time crunch situation.

Daniel Erichsen

Our office has a number of Polycom systems and Daniel has always come over with a smile on his face to help us out of any jams.  Just now I had a room full of department chairs, associate Deans, and the College Dean on the Polycom network.  I called Daniel in a bit of a panic.  Daniel ran from the Quentin Burdick Building to help us out.  He literally ran.  This is the kind of wonderful service he always provides us so the nursing department would like to nominate Daniel Erichsen for the Campus Kudos award today.

Lynndell Haugen

Lynndell is an awesome employee, he is a cook at the WDC Dining Center.  He has the greatest attitude.  He has continuous new ideas for menu's and doing dishes that have the students coming to eat at the WDC coming back for more.  He has awesome teamwork, always willing to help out all staff and teach the students who are employed with us how to work as a TEAM.  His integrity speaks for itself.  He is a great guy to be around and he has blossomed into a cloud in the last 4 months; a pleasure to work with.  The students working in the kitchen love working with him, as do a lot of the full time staff.  He has a funny wit about him that makes the wokring day fun.  All who work with him enjoy working with him.

Lauren Palmquist

Lauren is one of the student schedulers at the West Dining Center.  She always puts a smile on my face when she comes to work.  She is very polite to all of the students she hires to work at WDC.  She has an excellent demeanor about her.  She is a compassionate, eager, willing young adult who is going to go far in life.  She recently was in Washington DC with one of her other classes on campus.  She was telling me it was an experience of a lifetime.  She volunteers up at the Vets Hospital.  She does other volunteer work.  She works at the dining center, attends classes, has a very busy schedule, and can get this all done with still smiling and having a great day.  She is very nice to all students she hires at the dining center and tries to make their first job experience an experience for students going out into the real world without their parents around.  She has great leadership skills and it shows.  Like I said she brings a smile to my face every time she comes into the office as she is a very nice young lady and greets everyone with a friendly attitude.

Tammy Helweg

Brrrrr! Today is 1/6/15 and it is cold out! We are under a Wind Chill Advisory that was soon to turn into a Wind Chill Warning. Tammy knew that I had been out shopping all morning buying things that the residence halls needed. She was eating lunch when I returned to the office. Tammy stopped what she was doing, put on her coat, hat and mittens and helped me unload the van.  Thank you, Tammy! Your help today was much appreciated!

Ricki Martin

I work with Ricki with travel vouchers and other accounting issues with the bookstore. Ricki always helps with a smile, answers my questions promptly and explains things in a way that are easily understandable. I really appreciate her and find it a pleasure to work with her."

2014 Recipients

Amanda Sosa

As the Center Director, Amanda Sosa is a wonderful resource at the Harry D. McGovern Alumni Center. She is always friendly and courteous and goes above and beyond to help meet our needs for an event. She comes up with suggestions and ideas and is truly a great NDSU employee. She is the best!!

Thomas Cocozzello

Tom was so very helpful when I was having an issue with wireless access with my phone. He immediately stopped what he was doing to quickly assist me and within minutes everything was working properly. I so appreciated his prompt and courteous customer service!

LaVon Whipple

Nomination 1: LaVon is the sweetheart that works at the Barry Hall coffee shop. She always greets everyone with a smile no matter on our mood! Sometimes I go and get a coffee just so I can see her! 

Nomination 2: This is literally the sweetest lady on campus. I come in everyday with my order and she is more than happy to make it as well as make chit chat with the biggest smile on her face! Her positive attitude is so contagious and my morning trips to get some coffee make my tough morning classes so much more bearable. She knows a large number of students on a first name basis. This lady needs an award!

Nomination 3: Works in Barry Hall Coffee Shop.  Always says "hi" to everyone and makes everyone's day better.

Douglas Nowatzki

I would like to nominate Doug for the Campus Kudos recognition because he always has a positive attitude and a smile on his face. Our entire office often comments on how much they appreciate the positivity that Doug brings into the office twice a day. He seems to really enjoy his job and works very hard at it. He is someone who is very approachable and is willing to go above and beyond to help out. He is an asset to NDSU and should know how much his positive attitude and hard work are appreciated.

Jodi Askew

The Student Life Office ordered a couple of engraved pen sets from the NDSU Bookstore to be presented at a luncheon on Wednesday, April 30. Unfortunately, we did not have the items the morning of the scheduled event. When I went to the bookstore to inquire about them, Jodi Askew was already on top of things. She had checked the tracking number and verified that the pens were due to be shipped at 11:00 that day. I really appreciated that she was already on top of things.

The shipment was due at 11:00, which was only one hour before the event off-campus. Jodi had already alerted their staff to locate the pens as soon as the order arrived. I was very impressed because I can only imagine how large their shipment was.

Shortly after I returned to my desk, Jodi called me with a back-up plan in the event that the delivery was running late or in case it took them a while to get to the pens. She gift wrapped a couple of boxed pen sets from the store so that the recipients would have something to open. I’m please to say that we never had to present these proxy gifts. The engraved pens were hand delivered to our office in the nick of time!

When I returned the gift wrapped pens to Jodi afterwards, I let her know that I was able to rush the pens to the location of the luncheon in time. She was very relieved because it would have been the first time a special order didn’t make it in on time. Jodi went above and beyond in regard to customer service! Kudos to Jodi!

Jeff Gimbel

Jeff has really helped us with some new technology issues. He is patient and never talks down to us. We couldn't have done it without his help. He is an invaluable resource. 

Blair Johnson

Blair has exceptional customer service - always is patient in explaining me through a process. I always call him when I have a computer issue and know that he will resolve the problem with a smile.

2013 Recipients

JoVal Wettlaufer

I would like to nominate JoVal Wettlaufer for the Campus Kudos recognition. JoVal is the Coordinator of Campus Recreation and Intramural Sports for the Wellness Department. She works to serve the students by running the Campus Recreation programs including Intramurals and the NDSU Climbing Wall. I am impressed by JoVal's professionalism and passion for providing quality programs, as well as her ability to provide strong leadership to her team of student employees. JoVal has also taken initiative to provide strong leadership in the area of emergency response and preparedness for all Wellness Center staff. She teaches safety certification courses and leads our Emergency Response Committee. Her efforts have made the Wellness Center a much safer place for all of our students. Her work has a wide ranging-impact on thousands of students who participate in Wellness programs every semester. JoVal is very humble when it comes to serving others. She goes about her work quietly, in many cases going unnoticed. She is organized and professional, which serve compliment her quality of work. I believe JoVal is deserving of the Campus Kudos award, and deserves the recognition for serving the NDSU community with passion and hard work every day.

Tandee Brakken

Tandee was instrumental in helping HR/Payroll with the proper format for addressing the W-2 and 1042-S tax documents for the employees that live in campus housing. She volunteered to go the extra mile by hand delivering the tax forms that were rejected by the US Post Office to each housing unit for redistribution. This saved the University additional postal costs and the employees received their tax documents much sooner than waiting for US Mail service.

Tandee also shows great interest and concern for employees in Residence Life, by keeping them informed. Each January, HR/Payroll sends e-mails to all employees regarding expiring tax forms, she posts and redistributes these notifications to employees and their supervisors so that no one misses the notification. During the Fall hiring season, she verifies that all of her incoming employees have completed the necessary forms to begin working at NDSU. She works closely with HR/Payroll to make sure that all of her employees are in compliance with Federal and State laws.

Tandee is a great asset to Residence Life and NDSU!!!

Mary Asheim

Mary has done an outstanding job as the Communications Officer for Staff Senate. This is a fairly new position and Mary has definitely set the bar high. Her leadership as the PR committee chair has created outstanding results and the effort she puts forth to bring ideas to fruition is so impressive. The basis for the Kudos award is to recognize members of the campus community for outstanding customer service, teamwork, integrity, quality and efforts towards continuous improvement. Mary’s work as the communications officer embodies every one of these characteristics. I am sure that Mary would want me to recognize the contributions of the PR Committee members. They also should be applauded for their work, but her leadership has motivated this group to accomplish a lot on behalf of staff and staff senate. Great job Mary. Great job PR committee. 

Maynard Schmidt

Our new 4-ton X-ray unit showed up at 8:00 on a Monday morning, fully 26 hours ahead of the scheduled delivery date. Maynard interrupted his work to move this awkward, delicate, and expensive instrument from the truck to a storage facility right away. And he did it expertly, AND with a smile. Thank you, Maynard, for handling the "forklift emergency"!

Anita Welch

I would like to nominate Dr. Anita Welch for a Campus Kudos award.  I have known and worked with Dr. Welch for the last three years and she deserves to be recognized for many reasons. 

First, Dr. Welch sets high expectations for her students.  I have taken several classes from Dr. Welch and because of her demand for excellence, I have had to work hard in each and every one of her classes, but in doing so I have gained so much valuable knowledge that I can put to use in my classroom.  

Next, Dr. Welch is always willing to help her students.  I am a distance student, living near Cartwright, ND, and this has created a few challenges for me as I worked through graduate school.  I apreciate that even though I know Dr. Welch is busy, she is always willing to do anything from collect signatures for paperwork to answer questions on the weekends about that dreaded Stats course she teaches!

Last, my experience at NDSU would not have been as positive as it has been if Dr. Welch hadn't gotten to know me as a person.  I have only been to campus three times in the last three years, but Dr. Welch has made me feel comfortable and welcomed each time.  I know that she cares about my eduation and for that I say Kudos!

Chris Anderson, David Dynes, Frank Duray

Chris, Dave, and Frank work in Print and Copy Services in Ag Communications. All three have excellent customer service. On several occasions I have witnessed a customer wanting a print job on very short notice, sometimes immediately, and they accommodate the request no matter what it is. They are all very easy to work with and make being at work enjoyable. 

Sara Kuhry

Sara is the Communication Coordinator at the Wellness Center and has made it a pleasure to come to work. She continues to provide high quality work no matter how many projects she is given. She is easy to work with and gives honest, open feedback! I want to nominate Sara for this award for being a great asset to my team, always providing great results in a timely manner. I love working with her.  :)

David Dahl

While trying to set up the Bison Card reader for Panda Express on Thursday, 8/30 a wiring issue was discovered by David Dahl. In 24 hours the connection was setup correctly and the campus had the capability to use Bison Bucks and Bison Charge at Panda Express. David dropped what he was scheduled to do to make certain the campus community had the services they have come to expect. (Ok, David is a user of the Bison Charge program so he may have had a vested interest!)

Nate Gonser and Michael Aho

I want to express the great appreciation that I and my department have for the work that the IT Help Desk team does. They are absolutely terrific. Each and every one of them.

Most recently, we had 4 new positions to fill in our office. With that came the removal of email accounts, obtaining email addresses and access to shared drives, etc., etc. I was constantly bombarding Nate Gonser and Michael Aho with requests and minor issues. Their response time could not have been better. I really felt that they went above and beyond. They were so helpful and made getting our new employees up and running with barely a hitch.

I can't tell you how good that feels to a new employee to be 'ready to go' on their first day of work. It's makes them feel like part of the team they are joining and not so out of place.

Thank you for all you do to make our world - and the whole campus - a better place to work. IT is lucky to have you!

Rich Lodewyk

We were in need of great video footage of campus life at NDSU for a project, when uncooperative weather prevented us from getting the video we needed in a time crunch. After contacting Rich Lodweyk, Communications Department faculty and advisor to Bison Information Network, Rich quickly located excellent video footage taken by NDSU students that could be used for our time-crunched project. He provided excellent customer service, while promoting the work of his students in the Bison Information Network and SUTV.

2012 Recipients

Shelley Rice

As HR Assistant, one of Shelley's roles is to process Tuition Waiver forms. I appreciate her patience and persistence in explaining the process and verifying eligibility for my son, a new freshman student at NDSU. She helped me understand and benefit from this very valuable "perk" for employees. Thank you, Shelley!

Eric Exner

Eric is great to work with. He is always friendly and has a positive attitude. He’s dependable, always going above and beyond to help me even when he’s busy. He has so much knowledge with PeopleSoft and our accounting system and is willing to share it. He enables me to be better at my job and understand NDSU’s accounting system. I don’t feel “thank you” is sufficient for all he’s taught me.

Devin Styczynski, Adam Christiansen, and Bill Lenarz

Bill, Devin and Adam went above and beyond to bring an idea for the Homecoming float to a reality. They took the lead in getting the materials, cutting out letters and Bison, stenciling and painting the wood for the float and assembling it on parade day. The teamwork shown by these three exemplifies the wonderful senators we have and truly defines teamwork.

CJ Johnson

CJ helped me design and co-facilitate an iPad training at NDSU Extension's Fall Conference the week of November 5. I am a newer employee and this was my first time presenting to this group and CJ did an excellent job in mentoring and co-facilitating. I learned a lot from him and appreciate his helpfulnes! He is an excellent trainer!

Steve Beckermann

I had a major project to work on a video file of 19 minutes. Steve walked me through each and every step and prepared me to work on my own to accomplish this task. I sincerely regards his training session and thank his support. 

2011 Recipients

Dorothy Davis

We would like to nominate Dorothy Davis for a Campus Kudos for the exemplary work she does in the Accounting Office. Dorothy's attention to detail and knowledge of accounting policies is vital to NDSU and affects the departments within NDSU on a daily basis. We want to thank her for her integrity and help throughout the years. Thanks Dorothy!!!

NDSU Student Government

NDSU Student Government gave $40,000 to Gold Star Marching band and Staff Senate would like to recognize their support of the band.

NDSU Gold Star Marching Band 2010

The NDSU Staff Senate Executive Committee recommends the NDSU Gold Star Marching Band 2010 for outstanding service and commitment to the University, community and the state of North Dakota for continuing to perform without stipends for participation. It is commendable and recognized that each individual made adjustments to continue the fine 100 plus years of tradition. The Gold Star Marching Band truly is the pride of North Dakota State University and of North Dakota.

Victoria Miller

I have had the pleasure of working with Vicki Miller on the Valentine Ball Committee for the last three years. She chaired the committee this year, and it was the largest turnout of students, faculty, staff and alumni to date.

Vicki is organized and easily handles situations at the last minute. When we needed extra food, table arrangments etc., she was there to deliver.

She puts 110% into this event and that is why it has been so successful.

Garrett Brunell

Garrett Brunell is a graduate student of Civil Engineering. During his undergraduate degree here, Garrett is an ASCE member, with 1 year as a Build Team Member, and two years as a Co-Captain for the Steel Bridge Team in which we placed 1st in Nationals in 2010. During this time he has been extremely helpful in CE Dept. He made shelves on his own time to be able to display the awards and has helped staff numerous ways in which he was not required. Currently, he is a GTA and also helps with our new CE Website. I can’t thank him enough for all the support he has given the CE department.

Diane Ness

Diane is always pleasant to work with and never seems to let the pressure get to her. There are many times where I have had to submit a job late, but she always gets the job out. She is a team player, so when Bill is not around she is delivering all the jobs herself, which is always a nice suprise to see her!

Rae Ann Berg

I would like to mention RaeAnn Berg, ANSC for her outstanding work and respectful and efficiently way that she execute her tasks.

Matthew J. Piehl

Matt works for Enterprise Computing and Infrastructure, and he has assisted us in maintaining regulated access to our information storage system. He is available and friendly and persistent and unfailingly cheerful--what could be more helpful?

Paul Froeschle

Paul tho no longer a member of the Staff Senate volunteered his time and expertise to help build the 2011 Staff Senate Homecoming float.  Not only did he give up hours to help build the float but he also cheerfully volunteered to help tear it down.  This is not surprising for this is just who Paul is. He is the first one to lend a helping hand to staff and students with a cheerful smile and a joke or two.  The Homecoming committee would like to show our appreciation and nominate Paul Froeschle for the Kudo Award.

2010 Recipients

Blair Johnson

I would like to nominate Blair Johnson of ITS Desktop Support for the Campus Kudos Award. I recently had the pleasure of working with Blair after a most unpleasant computer virus struck my University-issued laptop. Blair was extremely conscientious of my time and schedule, and performed his duties as a true professional.

Throughout this ordeal, Blair did everything he could to resolve my technical problems remotely. When it was determined that I would need to turn over my machine for a day or two, he was very flexible to make sure it was at a time that I could manage without it. He walked over to my office to pick up/deliver my computer and to make sure things were working properly. I would offer to meet him 'half-way' (in the Union), but he would say, "No, Kristi, I am here to serve you."

Blair was very thoughtful and clear in explaining what he suspected the problem to be, articulated what his plan for remedying the situation was, and followed through on what he said he was going and when it would be completed.

In addition to his numerous acts of kindness and respect, he quickly established with me a level of credibility and trust. He knew he was dealing with a lot of sensitive information on my laptop, and assured me that protecting and preserving that information was a top priority.

He understood that being without a functioning laptop was an impediment to the work I do on behalf of the Univeristy. He demonstrated his care and concern to me professionally, as well as personally for feeling inconvenienced. He made sure I could still access information I needed temporarily through shared drives, etc. while he worked on my machine.

In addition to his excellent customer service and high level of professionalism while working on my computer, he followed-up with me and asked me to do the same with him should I experience anything- at all -out of the ordinary.

Overall, working with Blair made a bad situation not only very tolerable, but even enjoyable. He is a hidden treasure on campus, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to be served by him.

Brent Goosen

Brent is a welder in the Pilot Plant and a hero to NDSU Upward Bound for the second year during Homecoming. Brent was instrument in assisting the Upward Bound staff with the removal of a bench from the wagon the night before NDSU Homecoming. He stayed and removed the bench when he was supposed to be on his way to Hutchinson, MN to watch his son play football. We later learned that he made the game on time. Upward Bound is an pre-college program with tools, like wreches and stuff. Thanks to Brent our float was amazing without the bench.

2009 Recipients

Mary Asheim

I first started working with Mary when we organized the First Annual Valentine Ball for 2008. I found her to be a pleasure to work with then and I continue to be very impressed by her willingness to be helpful at all times. She is always friendly and professional. I think what I like most of all, is, she makes me feel like I am not a bother and not just a portion of her job. When I ask for something she just helps get it done - what a wonderful attitude! Thank you Mary.

Gloria Nysveen

Gloria is a gem and a walking encyclopeadia for the Nursing Department. She has been here for a long time and the department would stop running without her. I joined the Nursing Department in August of 2008 and she has been there every step of the way, and not just for me - she has time for the faculty, students, staff and just everyone! I nominate her highly for the Campus Kudos Award.

Robin S. Lamppa

Robin is erudite, articulate, versatile, energetic and dedicated staff employee of Plant Pathology Department. Our lab (Dr. Rubella Goswami) technician, goes by the lines of "Mr. Abraham Lincoln- I desire to build into my own character the keen sense of justice, the untiring spirit of patience, the sense of humor, the human understanding, and the tolerance which were your distinguishing characteristics". Despite being in his early 50s, he is willing to be charged with almost anything with a broad smile, rather than to be charged with being a leader. Hats off to his patience, he is motivated and motivates others with his dedication and accountability.

Duane "Ace" Johnson

I nominate our mailman Ace for a Campus Kudo award. He is always on time to deliver the mail in the rain, snow, cold, wind, heat, humidity...well, you get the idea. Some may say "that's his job". However, would you always have a smile and a friendly greeting on your face when you were cold or sopping wet? Ace has very few "perfect" weather days yet he is always there and ready to assist you. I appreciate the dedication that Ace shows and think he's very deserving of this award.

2006-2008 Recipients

Vance Olson

Facilities Management

"I think Vance did a fabulous job making sure that NDSU's Valentine ball went off without a hitch.  He was instrumental in working with the volunteer committee. He made sure the event was respectful and well organized. He let the students voice their opinions and work out the issues while guiding them in the proper direction without being bossy. Vance was very well informed off all the necessary steps.  He was extremely conscious of the monetary issues and stayed well in formed in all aspects. I think Vance was a great leader and lead a great group that accomplished a great event!"

Nathan Nerenz

Student

"Nathan is the computer support person in our college. I was having a problem with my computer which was difficult to fix, but Nathan didn’t give up until it was resolved. He came to my desk at least four times and spent several hours trying to solve and fix the problem. He was friendly, courteous and I appreciate all of his help. I know from talking to others, his friendly manner and attitude is extended to everyone. He is an asset to our college."

Shelly Swandal

Info Systems & Student Services Coordinator
Agribusiness & Applied Econ

"During the past several years, Shelly has stepped up to perform services and otherwise contributed in ways far beyond her responsibilities. She responds to student emails on the weekend and when she is on vacation regarding their technology issues. I could not offer our students the level of instruction online that we provide without her. She is such an important part of this campus!"

Steve Schwandt

Auto Service Worker

Facilities Management "Steve always has a smile on his face and is willing to help someone out at a moments notice. He is well liked by many people on and off campus. He teaches a class on automotive care for students on campus in conjunction with the Memorial Union Recreation and Outing Center. Steve also helps out in the winter with snow removal."

Marc Wallman

 

Director, IT Infrastructure
Information Tech Services

"Marc Wallman took the time to call in a telephone pole that was rotten and in serious jeopardy of falling over on a windy day. He took the time when other people had already walked by. It was on a Friday that was very windy and it was very noticeable. Thanks to Marc because this power pole would have fallen onto pedestrians, cars and buildings."

Kim Teske

 

Technology & Events Coordinator
Career Center

"The Career Center puts on nine events each year and Kim does an excellent job staying on top of deadlines, marketing, organizing and much more. She’s a very welcome asset to NDSU."

Mary Marto

 

Menu Management Coordinator
Dining Services

"Mary always goes the extra mile for fellow staff members and takes staff with disabilities under her wing. She does a lot of anonymous things without ever expecting anything in return."

Dr. William Martin

Head, School of Education

"Dr. Martin is skilled at listening and considering alternative points of view. He goes out of his way to be sure faculty and staff feel valued. He treats us with fairness and honesty which fosters trust."

Amali Samarasinghe

NDSU Student

"Quality work and unimpeachable integrity are the hallmarks of Amali’s science. Her teamwork extends beyond her work in the lab: remembering birthdays, sending ‘get well soon’ cards, and caring about the welfare of her labmates."

Donna Alby

Administrative Secretary
Mechanical Engineering

"Donna has been on campus over 20 years and has exhibited all of the valued behaviors. Her customer service is top-notch, whether assisting faculty or serving as the ‘elevator lady’ in the dorms when new freshmen come onto campus."

Bill Kozojed

Equipment Operator
Document Publishing

"Bill is always in a good mood, with a smile on his face, even though his job has got to be demanding! He makes everyone's day just a little bit brighter, taking customer service to the next level in my book."

Bobbi Riziska

Administrative Coordinator
University Police

"Bobbi has restructured the record keeping system so it runs like clockwork and has done a tremendous amount of work on the Clary Act and Campus Security information. She is a tireless worker who gives 110%."

Ann Sitzmann

Assistant Director
Career Center

"Ann is very professional and knowledgeable. Ann does a remarkable job with the Accounting Club and Meet the Firms Night. She is extremely helpful to students exploring career opportunities."

Sarah Hunter

Hall Director

"Sarah is always a pleasure to work with and has been instrumental in planning and organizing Residence Fall Training. She is ALWAYS on top of her game with vision, enthusiasm and a willingness to help."

Blair Johnson

Microcomputer Hardware Tech

"Blair goes out of his way to fit in our requests, even at his inconvenience—AND, he always helps with a smile! When many of us grumble over a computer problem, Blair says ‘isn’t this interesting!"

Rhonda Kitch

Assistant Registrar

"Over the years, I’ve greatly appreciated Rhonda’s professionalism, compassion, and ability to communicate clearly. She’s thorough and responds quickly. Thank you for your numerous contributions to this campus."

Amy Ochoa

Account Assistant

"Amy is always willing to help with travel arrangements, reimbursements and pointing people in the right directions for forms. She is always pleasant to visit with and has a great sense of humor!"

Ruth Anne Faulkner

Administrative Assistant
Center for Science & Math Education

"Ruth Anne constantly makes everyone feel like they are the most important person she has to deal with. She is caring, compassionate and giving. She takes care of things to the nth degree."

Diane Axness

Administrative Secretary
College of Business

"Diane is always ready and willing to help faculty and students and will typically interrupt whatever she is working on to assist others. Her promptness and friendly nature is much appreciated!!"

2005-2006 Recipients

Bruce Frantz

Director of Facilities Management

"Bruce has shown such tremendous support of Staff Senate throughout the year including going above and beyond by sending a final memo encouraging his staff to self nomination themselves or others.  he is a real team player and I have so appreciate his input and support. Thank you Bruce."

Lyn Pletta

Benefits Specialist for Human Resources

"Lyn is the Benefits Specialist for NDSU. She holds benefit sessions every Monday and Wednesday, she has helped countless numbers of staff/faculty with the enrollment of benefits, any questions about their benefits, etc. She is always the person in the office that is there if someone needs help with something; she is a great team player.  She has been with PeopleSoft from the start, and she works very hard to fix anything that comes up in the system pertaining to an employee's benefits before it affects them."

Brian Kennedy

Desktop Support Specialist

"My computer crashed and was "pretty friend." Everything I had --syllabi, notes, test, recommendations -- were on the hard drive; I was very upset. But Brian, a Desktop Support Specialist with ITS never gave up trying everything he could and eventually retrieved everything!  He spent many, many hours and I am deeply, deeply grateful.  When I said that owed him a lot, he just shrugged it off and said, "That's what they pay for me." No, Brian, you are extraordinary, and very deserving of special recognition."

Donald Lebakken

Carpenter, Facilities Management

"I had the pleasure of being able to work with Don Lebakken Fall Semester of this year. He was called to our department to help mount two new sewing machines. Due to a series of events, Don needed to visit the sewing lab on at least three separate occasions to complete the project. In the end he needed to remake the top of the table where the machines are mounted in order for the students to use them. Don was always pleasant and willing to help however he could. I appreciated his skilled workmanskip and positive attitude throughout the completion of this project. The tables look great. Thank you."

Steve Walker

NDSU Student

"My husband and I attended two volleyball games. On both nights it was a pleasure to watch Steve throw mini volleyballs to children during the breaks. One night Steve caught one of the balls and he played catch with a child for about ten minutes. At the end he gave the ball to the boy and you could just see how happy the child was that his HERO had taken the time to play with him.  The boy even had Steve autograph the ball.  It was great to see such an unselfish act!"

Dana Davis

NDSU Admission Counselor

"Dana Always has a warm, inviting demeanor with everyone she interacts with.  She exudes a very kind and gentle attitude with students and staff.  She is willing to take on any project with a smile and always completes it to the best of her ability. She is a joy to work with."

Peggy Cossette

Assistant to the Dean in the College of HD&E

"Peggy was very helpful in getting me an answer regarding a Program Fee, for myself as a staff person taking classes through tuition waivers. This was not the first time Peggy went out of her way to resolve programs or give an encouraging word."

 

2004-2005 Recipients

Aquina Beck

Campus Kudos Recipient

"Aquina is wonderful to work with.  She is friendly and eager to help.  She watches out for her employees and is concerned about their safety.  She is very prompt in getting the incident reports in and following up with training, etc."

Melanie Milam

Campus Kudos Recipient

"Melanie is a person who goes out of her way to accommodate the needs of all persons who come across her desk. She is an example of going the extra mile--to counsel a student, find a package, or match the need with the correct expertise."

Matthew Walker

Campus Kudos Recipient

"Over the weekend of January 7-9, 2005, Matthew Walker served as the on-call plumber for campus.  Sevrinson and Pavek Hall both experienced significant water issues that brought Matthew to campus several times and for extensive work both in the middle of the night and throughout large portions of the day.  Despite the last night and numerous calls, he was extremely friendly and helpful to the residence hall staff.  Matthew exemplified customer service and assisted in keeping stressful facility concerns manageable and calm."

Gail Schmidt

Campus Kudos Recipient

Gail is always smiling and has a great attitude.  Gail has become known as the 'go to gal.' I often am contacting her to find out answers regarding our Cooperative Education students.  She always has an answer and if not, she'll find out what the answer is. Gail is a true asset to Registration and Records and NDSU.

Ron Koehler

Facilities Management

Ron does a lot of work for the Libraries on Thursday when he picks up and delivers any large (and often times heavy) items that we may have.  We all appreciate the hard work that he does for us.

Other Campus Kudos Recipients

ITS Network Services:
Carla Johnson, Valerie Nordsletten, Cheryl Swanson, Chad Foster, Diane Clark, Bruce Curtis, and David Dahl
February 2004
Teresa SonsthagenJanuary 2004
NDSU Telecommunications StaffJanuary 2004
Charles Cherry, Office of Trio ProgramsNovember 2003
Jane Devaney, Facilities ManagementNovember 2003

Trish Tallakson, Graduate Student and
Heidi Frie, NDSU Counseling and Disability Services

October 2003
John Underwood, ITS Help DeskOctober 2003
Deb Ott, Registration and RecordsOctober 2003
Program Presenters, which have been awarded Campus Kudos:
Joseph Chapman, NDSU President
Theresa Semmens, NDSU IT Security Officer
Paul Boswell, Director of Multicultural Student Services
David Wahlberg, University Relations
Ray Tozer, President and
Tanya Northagen, President Elect UND Staff Senate
Paul Boswell, Brandon Richard, and Larry Peterson: TOCAR - Training Our Campuses Against Racism
Dean Aakre, University Senate Parliamentarian
Rhonda Kitch, Office of Admission, Kara Stack, Campus Programs, and Allyn Kostecki, Office of Trio Programs
Dr. Tom Moberg, Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer
Bruce Frantz, Director, Facilities Management
Top of page