Quarterly pillar awards are granted to individuals throughout the year, but SAC also wanted to highlight those nominees that particularly represented certain elements of the TU Commitment. These yearly winners were chosen from those nominated throughout the year as quarterly nominees and were recognized at the Employee Appreciation Week Picnic!
Acceptance: Sheila Givens-Rains
Fostering an atmosphere of acceptance requires a holistic approach, where someone is made to feel safe, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. As Director of Student Retention, Sheila’s institutional knowledge has proven particularly indispensable this past year during the development of the Student Success Initiative, but the true scope of Sheila’s impact on our campus community is often a story of compassion and acceptance. There is little doubt that Sheila embodies the pillar of acceptance in her dealings not only with students, but staff and faculty as well. Examples of her support and acceptance of difficult situations include everything from helping grieving families to finding foster homes for stray animals. Whether you are student, faculty or staff, Sheila is a cornerstone of the campus community that accepts us all for who we are and will lend a hand wherever she can.
Self-Discovery: Lindsey Perry
In her role as Enrollment Management Coordinator and Retention Specialist for Oxley College of Health Sciences, Lindsey always makes time to help students chart a path of self-discovery to reach their enrollment and academic goals. But her contributions are not limited to the students. She has diligently sought to improve student interactions, the staff voice, and the collaboration between faculty, staff, and administration with a strong focus on efficiency, satisfaction, and success. Her input, participation and initiative has been instrumental in such groups as University Council, Drop Guard Transition Team, Gardner Institute Initiative, Provost’s Student Development and Success Group, Student Success Initiative and the Collegiate Advisory Council. Lindsey is not only dedicated to helping our students cultivate their intellectual curiosity and inquisitiveness, she’s crucial to the University finding its way through this time of significant changes and introspection.
Engagement: Justin Kendrick
Engagement requires active participation to develop unique gifts and talents. This can be difficult if the tools or equipment necessary for active engagement in various projects is not available or functioning. Justin’s work as an Instrumentation Technician in the College of Engineering & Natural Sciences involves maintaining aging lab equipment so faculty and students can continue their research and coursework projects. He’s known for the ability to “fix just about anything” as well as his enthusiastic and friendly can-do attitude. Faculty and staff all know that he’s a problem solver who understands the time-sensitive nature of their work and how it can quickly be derailed when a piece of equipment breaks down. They trust him and know he can fix it! Justin’s commitment to the active engagement of our faculty and staff means he does whatever’s necessary to get them up and running as soon as possible.
Empowerment: Joey Oneal
Empowerment is about helping others to grow and develop personally and professional. As Director of Student Activities, Joey leads by example and challenges student leaders to develop their own management and leadership styles. Students find in her a reliable coach and helpful conversational partner for personal and professional growth. She encourages and facilitates student leaders to create new collaborations with institutional funding policies, interfaith experiences, student training opportunities and campus experiences related to diversity and inclusion. The role of coaching and overseeing student leaders requires a constant commitment to self-evaluation, ongoing assessment, flexibility, and consistency of focus that might be difficult to maintain for many of us. But Joey does that in a way that empowers students to constantly strive to be not just better leaders, but better individuals. On her path to empowering our students, Joey doesn’t just lead, she inspires!