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.
Individuals:
Noelle San Souci x2 | Jeanette Dias | Griselda Ruiz-Braun | Paige Whitney | Jhane Buckner | Ryan Achor | Robynne Dahl | Keith Valentine | Samir Laaraj | Bob Bailey | Brandon Poulliot | Brenna Faricy | Becca Cherpak | Brad Bayer | Yvonne Weeres
Teams:
To all Student Move-In Volunteers | Mark Kwitek and Phil White | Brett and Keith from Facilities | Travis Bacon, Kelsey Birch, Shantelle Zimmer, and UCCS Public Safety Department | UCCS Pre-Collegiate Team
Individuals
To: Noelle San Souci
From: Brad Bayer
Congratulations to Noelle San Souci, the new Director of Student Engagement! For the past few years as the Associate Director of Student Engagement, Noelle has played a key role in advancing student engagement, connection, and belonging efforts on campus and has done exceptional work. As the Director of Student Engagement, she will oversee the direction and operational management of the Department of Student Life.
To: Noelle San Souci
From: Cody Parish
Since we saw the departures of 3 pro-staff within a matter of a month, Noelle has stepped up with her team to shoulder the weight of SGA orientation, Student Engagement Leaders, Clyde’s Kickoff and DisOrientation Week programming, and the LIVE Leadership GPS course–and she has done a truly amazing job at all of these things. She continues to come into the office each day with positivity and welcome humor, motivating her staff to push forward despite being exhausted and overwhelmed. I know she would argue with me about this, but she exemplifies strong leadership at a time when it is desperately needed within the department. We are incredibly lucky to have her at UCCS.
To: Jeanette Dias
From: Anonymous
Jeanette is a powerhouse! She will always offer to help when additional work needs to be done and is doing an amazing job at preparing the College of Business for our AACSB reaccreditation.
To: Griselda Ruiz-Braun
From: Ann Amicucci
Griselda has gone above and beyond in assisting the Offices of Sponsored Programs and Research Integrity this month. She has assisted me in the process of applying for external grants, and her expertise has been invaluable as I’ve developed proposal budgets. I’m grateful to Griselda for always taking the time to help others understand campus processes and for being willing to answer so many questions!
To: Paige Whitney
From: Kimberly Humphrey
Dr. Paige Whitney has consistently gone above and beyond for the Health Sciences Department, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to guiding and supporting students throughout their internship experiences. Her dedication to preparing students for the workforce is evident in her personalized approach, ensuring each student gains the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to excel in their future careers. Dr. Whitney’s passion for mentoring and her tireless efforts to foster professional growth have left a lasting impact on both the students and the department, making her an invaluable asset to our academic community.
To: Jhane Buckner
From: Jay Hubert
I’m sure I’m not the only UCCS employee who doesn’t enjoy having to pay to park at my place of employment, but I also understand the reasoning behind this. I greatly appreciate the changes that Parking and Transportation Services have implemented this new school year in an attempt to give us better options for parking (so kudos to the entire PTS team!). The changes did raise several questions for me about how they would apply to my specific parking situation, and when I emailed my questions to [email protected], I received a prompt, thorough, and friendly reply from Jhane Buckner. I had a few followup questions I sent back her way, and she replied almost immediately with the answers. The quick and friendly help was very much appreciated Jhane. Thank you!
To: Ryan Achor
From: Office of Research Staff
Kudos to Ryan Achor for her last minute assistance during the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) mini-conference Monday August 19th. This was a classic campus example of value-added staff assistance by helping others outside their organization.
To: Robynne Dahl
From: Charlie Kuehler
A huge shout out to Robynne for her help with updating the department names and structure under the hood in the HR system to reflect the EMSA division changes. Not only did she have an enormous amount of patience with me submitting this massive amount of HCM tree node change requests, she helped with navigating a way to do it more efficiently than filling out 50+ PDF request forms! THANK YOU ROBYNNE!
To: Keith Valentine (Facilities)
From: Anonymous
Keith always does his work requests with a smile.
To: Samir Laaraj
From: Anonymous
Samir naturally goes above and beyond for everyone he comes in contact with; from catering clients to coworkers to student employees. He is an asset to the catering team and strives to improve the culture on campus every chance he gets.
To: Bob Bailey
From: Chuck Carter
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for Bob’s incredible support recently on the Faculty Support Network Console. His willingness to step in at the last minute and deliver outstanding work is appreciated. His dedication, expertise, and positive attitude made all the difference, and we couldn’t have done it without him. Thank you for being such a valuable team player!
To: Brandon Poulliot
From: Chuck Carter
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for Brandon’s incredible support recently on the Faculty Support Network Console. His willingness to step in at the last minute and deliver outstanding work is appreciated. His dedication, expertise, and positive attitude made all the difference, and we couldn’t have done it without him. Thank you, Brandon, for being such a valuable team player!
To: Brenna Faricy
From: Cody Parish
In coordination with GPS staff, Brenna has worked tirelessly throughout the summer to expand and elevate our UCCSlead Day of Service to support hundreds more students in one go than in previous semesters. She has increased our community partnerships to 15+ by cultivating personal relationships with each of these nonprofits, strengthening our institution’s connection to the Colorado Springs community and bringing more networking and leadership opportunities to the feet of our students. I’m incredibly grateful to have her on my team.
To: Becca Cherpak
From: Cody Parish
Becca has proven instrumental to the recent success of the Student Life department. After the departures of 3 pro-staff within a month, Becca has taken on an immense amount of responsibilities, including co-leading Clyde’s Kickoff and DisOrientation Week programming, co-teaching the LIVE Leadership GPS course, launching club and org registration, and assuming leadership of Fraternity & Sorority Life advisement, including recruitment. That she has done so with such resilience and good humor is amazing, especially given that she is the spouse of a deployed military service member and mother to two children. I’m consistently inspired by her work ethic and grateful for the visible ways she has sustained our staff morale during what many would consider overwhelming circumstances. We are truly fortunate to have her here at UCCS.
To: Brad Bayer
From: Cody Parish
I know Brad would likely not want to be recognized, but he has been truly phenomenal as a supervisor during what has been an incredibly challenging transition period for the Student Life & Leadership cluster. We lost 3 pro-staff members in a single month, and Brad immediately shifted gears to offer individualized support and guidance to each member of our team as we approached the beginning of the fall semester. He has led our cluster with resilience and care, maintaining a visible presence within our hallways and at our events. He cares deeply for our students and for our staff, and his leadership has been a compass during a very stressful several weeks. We are incredibly lucky to have him here at UCCS.
To: Yvonne Weeres
From: Anonymous
Kudos to Yvonne for teaching this ‘old dog’ new tricks :) Thanks for giving me a search from start to finish refresher/overview!
To: All Student Move-In Volunteers
From: Chancellor Sobanet
I want to extend my deepest gratitude to each of you for your outstanding efforts during this year’s student move-in. Your hard work, warm welcomes, and willingness to go the extra mile made a world of difference for our new and returning students and their families. Thank you for being such incredible ambassadors of UCCS. Please know how truly grateful I am to each of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to help with this exciting and busy day. You all have set such a positive tone for the academic year ahead. Go Mountain Lions!
To: Mark Kwitek and Phil White
From: Anonymous
Mark and Phil did an amazing job getting the Recreation Center back to tip top shape after the Waka Flocka Flame Concert. After over 1,000 students and staff were in the building within a two-hour period, Mark and Phil stayed through the night ensuring students would have a clean and welcoming environment to utilize at 6 a.m. They reset furniture, cleaned the courts, ensured bathrooms were ready to go, and much more! We greatly appreciate them!
To: Brett and Keith from Facilities
From: Johanna Creswell Baez
Brett and Keith went above and beyond today to help me fix my Varidesk and hang some file folders, when they were actually on a work order for another office next to mine. They were friendly, helpful, and provided excellent support. Big thanks to Brett and Keith in facilities!!
To: Travis Bacon, Kelsey Birch, Shantelle Zimmer, and UCCS Public Safety Department
From: Jay Hubert
I teach several film production courses at UCCS that necessitate my students filming around campus in places not administered by Event Services, and I regularly have to reach out to the Public Safety Department to coordinate. Every single time I’ve communicated with them through phone or email, they have been incredibly helpful and efficient in getting things set up for my students. In the Spring semesters when my students are working on their capstone projects, my requests for help from Public Safety go up considerably, especially this past semester when the campus was shut down for two separate weekends and affected my students’ audition and filming schedules. I also had a student who had an external location fall through the day before his shoot, and wanted to switch to a location on campus. The Public Safety team went out of their way each time to help us come up with a solution. In particular I would like to that Travis Bacon and Kelsey Birch, who I’ve talked to numerous times over the phone. You both are always so helpful and accommodating! And Shantelle Zimmer came through big when we needed help opening our classroom on multiple weekends for student auditions. It’s great to know that in addition to keeping us safe on campus, the Public Safety team is also strongly committed to student success. And it helps that they are so easy to work with. Thank you to the entire Public Safety Department for being so awesome!
To: UCCS Pre-Collegiate Team
From: Dr. Nancy Hernandez
Congratulations to the UCCS Pre-Collegiate Teams from Colorado Springs and Pueblo! The programs put together and carried out Summer Academic Institutes with 121 scholars from both cities visiting UCCS during June. This is extra special for our Pueblo Pre-Collegiate staff who brought together the first Pueblo middle school cohort! Thank you for your diligent and hard work this summer everyone!
Want to celebrate your staff colleagues? Submit kudos anytime through the Staff Association website. Communique publishes Clyde’s Kudos each month.