Clyde’s Kudos are a Staff Association initiative celebrated each month on Communique. Nominations are also recognized through a variety of forums including the Staff Association website, the Staff Association newsletter, event shout-outs, handwritten cards and other methods of distribution.
Clyde’s Kudos: November 2021
Featured this month:
Teams:
David Feeling, TJ Peck & Recreation Center Staff | James Bremness & UCCS Events Services | Lisa Buckman, Crista Hill, Jeff Deickmam, Derrell Stinson, Angie Robinson, & VMA Student Staff | Office of Admissions | Paul Deniston & Bookstore Staff | Robin Margolin, Heath Wagner & The Dining Services Crew | Stephen Cucchiara, Flora Jathanna, Miles Jones & Student Life Team | The Excel Centers | Wellness Center Staff
Individuals:
Amanda Allee & Lisa Potoka | Brian Rossman | Brie Escobedo | Cheya Lacroix | Cindy Joos | Curtis Evans, Heather Gardner, Valerie McClinton, Lauren Rundell & Erin Mitchler | Emily Gregory, Danny Pape, Ralph Giese, Missy Sernatinger, Keely Zeimet & Archie Carreon | Gabby Hensley & Jeff Foster | Gretchen Bliss | Haley Russ | Heather Marx | James Bremness | Jerry Beyer | Kevin Landis, Roy Ballard, Caitlin Lowans, Emmaline Fisketjon & Sabrina Wienholtz | Kimberly Guyer | Krista Duffy | Leonardo Signorelli Stevens | Mallory Tuhkanen | Missy Sernatinger, Akilah Sweeten, Isabel Davis, Emilie Fox, Keely Zeimet & Angie Robinson | Noelle San Souci | Rachel Menkhus | Sandy Ho, Michael Ferguson & Missy Sernatinger | Sarah Meier | Sloan Gonzales & Cody Parish | Texting Campaign Volunteers | Todd Casey
Faculty:
Teams
To: David Feeling, TJ Peck & Recreation Center Staff
From: Ellen Burkart
Our biggest Family Weekend event is FamFest. Without David Fehring and TJ Peck and the entire Recreation Team, we would not be able to host or pull off this big event. This team not only helps with planning, organizing, and staffing this event, they are willing to jump in and help wherever needed to make FamFest a success. I love this partnership which exposes families to Campus Recreation and other support services on campus while also giving families a space to enjoy quality time together. Thank you!!
To: James Bremness & UCCS Events Services
From: Ellen Burkart
James and team. Thank you for jumping in during the last few weeks prior to Family Weekend to ensure that everything was going to be set up and ready to go for each of the events. James, I appreciate the time you spent to double and triple check all of the reservations and making sure that diagrams and staffing were ready to go. THANK YOU. You immediately eased my concerns of going into a big weekend and reassuring me that everything would run smooth and go well. You were right!
To: Lisa Buckman, Crista Hill, Jeff Deickmam, Derrell Stinson, Angie Robinson & VMA Student Staff
From: Ellen Burkart
Thank you for going above and beyond in making phone calls to help military affiliated students prepare for Spring 2022 courses. Your willingness to jump in, tackle nearly 1,000 phone calls, and support our students is making a difference. Thank you beyond words for all that you do to support our students in teaching their academic goals!!
To: Office of Admissions
From: Nick Lockwood
Thank you for your incredible team spirit and support of orientation. We are appreciative of your flexibility and willingness to share your space for orientation visits and facilitating the parking aspects for student visits. Always a pleasure working with such a wonderful team. Thank you!
To: Office of Admissions
From: Anon.
After an intense year of recruitment, admission, orientation and enrollment, the Office of Admission staff were asked to immediately pivot and begin onboarding our new Recruitment & Admission software platform (Salesforce “Admission Connect”). As is the case with any transition and migration of this scope, staff are leaned on heavily for successful implementation. The admission office staff continues to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to their work — work that is the starting point in support of helping students create better lives for themselves.
To: Paul Deniston & Bookstore Staff
From: Ellen Burkart
Thank you for extending your hours to have the Bookstore open for Family Weekend. I appreciate you and your team for always helping to support Family Weekend.
To: Robin Margolin, Heath Wagner & The Dining Services Crew
From: Ellen Burkart
Dining Services hosted a fantastic family brunch for Family Weekend. With over 100 people at the event and students taking to go boxes of food that they were excited to enjoy later, Dining Services went above and beyond in showcasing the wonderful dining experience that students get at UCCS. Thank you for all of your work in making this event extra special.
To: Stephen Cucchiara, Flora Jathanna, Miles Jones & Student Life Team
From: Ellen Burkart
A big thanks to Student life for helping us with the entertainment for Family Weekend. I appreciate this team for walking me through contracts, helping to guide me through riders and meet and greets and pulling off a fantastic evening of magic and Bingo!! Thank you beyond words for helping out to make Family Weekend events go as smooth as possible.
To: The Excel Centers
From: Ellen Burkart
The Excel Center team did an amazing job (as always) of opening their doors to students and their families during Family Weekend sharing tips on academic resources and engaging families in conversation. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
To: Wellness Center Staff
From: Anon.
We see you and appreciate all that you are doing to support our students and the campus through this pandemic. We see that you are exhausted, going above and beyond, having to deal with crisis around the clock while dealing with people who are frustrated, angry and confused and taking it out on you. We see you and want you to know that we care! Thank you for all that you do. We know we wouldn’t be back on campus and survived this pandemic without you!
Teams
To: Amanda Allee & Lisa Potoka
From: Ellen Burkart
Amanda and Lisa took the lead on facilitating a UCCS/Colorado Springs trivia game for parents and families during Family Weekend 2021. This not only gave families the opportunity to learn more about UCCS and engage with one another — they also got to spend a little time with Amanda and Lisa! Thank you both so very much.
To: Brian Rossman
From: Cindy Corwin
HR is work with a vendor to review ongoing pay equity and compression issues. Brian has collected data from our online personnel files and has actually given HR a process that will improve our data collection in the future. He is truly a hidden gem for UCCS.
To: Brie Escobedo
From: Ellen Burkart
Brie facilitated a Designing U(CCS) workshop during Family Weekend to encourage students to think about who they are and who they want to be. Not only did she take the time in a Saturday to lead this workshop, she ended up having to shift her workshop to a virtual format and facilitated it while not feeling well. Thank you, Brie for going above and beyond even when you should have been resting and recovering.
To: Cheya Lacroix
From: Sarah Elsey
Cheya has been instrumental in the new Salesforce implementation. She has been the voice for both graduate and undergraduate needs and that is much appreciated. Thank you for all your help!
To: Cindy Joos
From: Pam Sawyer
Cindy had the idea for an office supply swap and worked with the Office of Sustainability to make it come to fruition. She helped advertise, organize, and staff the event. Not just a great idea but also great implementation. This is just one example of Cindy working tirelessly behind the scenes to facilitate the successful day-to-day running of SPA and UCCS. Your work keeps us from flying off the rails. Thanks, Cindy!
To: Curtis Evans, Heather Gardner, Valerie McClinton, Lauren Rundell & Erin Mitchler
From: Nick Lockwood
Kudos to this outstanding committee for their tremendous support of orientation. We are so grateful for your work to improve the orientation and advising related processes for new students. I appreciate your care, student centered approach, and collaborative spirit. Thank you!
To: Emily Gregory, Danny Pape, Ralph Giese, Missy Sernatinger, Keely Zeimet & Archie Carreon
From: Ellen Burkart
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being the first friendly faces that greeted our families during Family Weekend 2021. Over the course of two days, you welcomed 140 students and their families to campus. Your friendly welcome helped to set a positive tone for a successful Family Weekend experience. THANK YOU!
To: Gabby Hensley & Jeff Foster
From: Anna Squires
Thank you, Gabby and Jeff, for taking beautiful photos of the grand opening for the brand-new T. Rowe Price Career and Innovation Center. It’s so exciting to see this new space for our students — but I also know how tricky event and indoor photography is. Your photos make me feel like I was there and are going to be resources for Career Center communications far into the future. Thanks so much!
To: Gretchen Bliss
From: Jen Furda
As the Director of Cyber for the WHOLE campus, Gretchen is making sure that ALL college are involved with Cyber AND she has tremendous reach into the community as well. She is putting UCCS on the map as THE Cyber University in the CU System! She goes above and beyond in cyber education and cyber connectedness. Her and her tiny team are passionate about cyber and UCCS.
To: Haley Russ
From: Stephen Cucchiara
Welcome to the Student Life team Haley! We are so lucky to have you and excited to see the great energy, ideas and programs you develop to engage our students.
To: Heather Marx
From: Stephen Cucchiara
Thank you for your consistent energy, work and commitment to assisting our student leaders. Your patience, dedication, and consistent willingness to meet students where they are to improve their experience is 100% needed and you continue to be that force in our department! Thank you!
To: Heather Marx
From: Mallory Tuhkanen
Heather is a one of a kind human and she truly lives the values of UCCS and our Student Life Office. She is always willing to step up and answer student, faculty, advisor and staff’s questions. Her willingness to work closely with our student clubs and organizations has greatly improved our student’s experience on campus. She is such a bright light in our office and is an incredible asset to our team.
To: James Bremness
From: Ellen Burkart
After months of planning Family Weekend 2021 and still not having an event contract or catering, James came in and worked his magic to ensure that the spaces and catering were set up and ready to go for Family Weekend 2021. With a lean crew, James went above and beyond to come in on his time off to check that the spaces were set for our event and communicated regularly with me which made me feel more confident that our event would go off without a hitch! THANK YOU, JAMES!
To: Jerry Beyer
From: Liz Bunkers
I want to give Jerry a big kudos for going above and beyond to deliver a huge shipment of boxes to the alumni office recently. He is always so friendly and helpful when I have questions, thanks for all you do Jerry!!
To: Kevin Landis, Roy Ballard, Caitlin Lowans, Emmaline Fisketjon & Sabrina Wienholtz
From: Ellen Burkart
Thank you all so much for helping to make the first evening of Family Weekend 2021 a success. From two sold out shows, extended hours at the Gallery, and a reception with over 80 individuals in attendance, we couldn’t have asked for a better way to kick off the weekend. You all are such a pleasure to work with and I am grateful that we were able to incorporate the arts in our Family Weekend. THANK YOU!
To: Kimberly Guyer
From: Anon.
In four months you have made a difference. You have listened, taken note, and made your team feel valued. You have helped us prioritize, start to take care of our well-being, and you have been an advocate and a voice. Thank you. We are lucky to have you as an addition to the Student Affairs team.
To: Krista Duffy
From: Nate
Krista has assisted with standing up many HR dashboard and metrics data sets which have previously not been completed. In my interactions with Krista, she has been kind, positive, and solutions-oriented when engaged in fairly complicated analysis. Thank you Krista for all you do to promote a positive work environment and for being a great steward of the UCCS core values.
To: Leonardo Signorelli Stevens
From: Stephanie Adams
Leo has been working on a custom webform and Event Management Portal for UCCS Downtown since May 2021. First of all, he inherited this project from another developer who left UCCS. Once assigned, he took the time to listen to me and understand the team’s needs. He coded and built this tool and its integrations from the ground up. Throughout the process he was kind and informative. As we tested the tool, he always communicated and responded to our suggestions and ideas. He is so talented and works hard to build tech solutions that best support the needs of UCCS depts. Our online tool is now LIVE and working GREAT! Thank you Leo for your dedication to this product, your innovation and your care for my team’s needs in the creation of this tool. YOU ROCK!!!
To: Mallory Tuhkanen
From: Stephen Cucchiara
Congratulations Mallory for the work you have done to engage/re-engage our student clubs and organizations and far exceeding the number of registered clubs we had last academic year. This is a great start and phenomenal way to build back engagement for our students! Keep up the fantastic work!
To: Missy Sernatinger, Akilah Sweeten, Isabel Davis, Emilie Fox, Keely Zeimet & Angie Robinson
From: Ellen Burkart
This crew is the dream team. From helping with planning, prepping for, organizing, and working crazy hours, Family Weekend would not have run as smooth without this lean and mighty team. Thank you for helping with check-in, facilitating events and activities, hanging signs, decorating, dragging carts all over campus, and jumping in wherever and whenever needed. I am blessed to have such an amazing team to work with and am so proud of this team for pulling off a fantastic Family Weekend experience for students and their families!!
To: Noelle San Souci
From: Stephen Cucchiara
Thank you for your leadership in late September and early October! I know you were only in week 3 since starting but you are beyond appreciated for your leadership and work in running Student Life while out! Beyond privileged to have you as a part of the Student Life team and helping advance our mission!
To: Rachel Menkhus
From: Nate
Rachel has assisted with several HR initiatives and done a stellar job in translating HR data into digestible information we can utilize to help drive core initiatives. Rachel is positive, proactive, and always willing to lean-in to challenging tasks. It is great to work alongside someone such as Rachel because I always learn something new from her!
To: Sandy Ho, Michael Ferguson & Missy Sernatinger
From: Ellen Burkart
Dr. Ho, Michael, and Missy — thank you for spending your Sunday morning greeting students and their families at the Family Brunch at Roaring Fork. You went way above and beyond by rolling up your sleeves, cutting up vegetables, cleaning tables, mopping floors,.and even searching for a family members earring (and finding it). You helped to make this a great experience for our students and their families. I appreciate you for all that you did to make this a successful event.
To: Sarah Meier
From: Ellen Burkart
Thank you for providing the opportunity to allow students and their families to enjoy cheering on the Mountain Lion soccer teams during Family Weekend. It’s always wonderful to partner with you and Mountain Lion Athletics. Thank you so much!
To: Sloan Gonzales & Cody Parish
From: Stephen Cucchiara
UCCSlead’s and Student Leadership Conference planning and Prep has been incredible! All our Lead sessions have been great and I cannot wait to see the leadership conference. Your work to engage students in leadership is far better than we have ever had and I am so grateful to work with you both. Thank you!
To: Texting Campaign Volunteers
From: Ellen Burkart
Kudos to Stephen Cucchiara, Lisa Potoka, Haley Russ, Alex Kirby, Angela Storck, Laura Straub, Bruce Zeigler, Valerie McClinton, Flora Jathanna, Heather Marx, Lynnie Goslin, Missy Sernatinger, Mallory Tuhkanen, Noelle San Souci, Robbie Guilford and Lisa Buckman. Thank you to this amazing team for jumping in with less than 24 hours notice to facilitate a texting campaign to help students prepare for Spring 2022 registration and help to walk students through how to resolve holds in their students accounts. This crew went above and beyond in responding to students, which resulted in over 300 students resolving holds in their accounts. Thank you all so much for your help. This was a huge help in connecting neighbour students and helping them to know we care!
To: Todd Casey
From: Ellen Burkart
Todd, thank you for being a data rockstar and helping me to figure out support and outreach to students with holds on their accounts. I appreciate that you have been so willing help out to make this project possible.
Faculty
To: Benjamin Kwitek
From: Ellen Burkart
Dr. Kwitek hosted an engaging campus class for students and their families during Family Weekend. He took extra time out of his busy schedule to put together a lecture just for Family Weekend and even provided his own prizes. The lecture was a hit. Thank you so much for volunteering your time to engage and interact with first-year students and their families!
To: Judy Scott
From: Jerrico Grimard
Extremely helpful in finding volunteers for the Health Fair. So many thanks!
Want to celebrate your colleagues? Submit kudos anytime through the Staff Association website. Communique publishes Clyde’s Kudos on the first business day of each month.