Recipients of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh STAR Award have been announced for April, May and June.
Ashley Behling, an administrative assistant with the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, earned the award for April. She was nominated as follows by the center’s interim director Tony Dirth:
“Ashley volunteered to serve as Clash at the first football game that the marching band performed. She is serving on the Dean of Students search committee. She is volunteering at Homecoming. She has done all of these things while providing a great level of service to our students in her regular role.
“Student Affairs was looking for a student to be Clash at the first football game of the year, to go out with the band as a part of that whole thing. When no students volunteered, Ashley said that she would do it. She dressed up as Clash for the afternoon. As for the Assistant Vice Chancellor/Dean of Students search committee, Ashley has served on this very time-consuming committee. This is actually her sixth search committee she’s volunteered to be on in the recent months, showing her dedication to the University. She also volunteered to help at the beverage table at Reeve for Homecoming festivities. For all of these reasons, she’s been a great contributor this semester and would be deserving of the award.”
Donna Johnson, a program assistant with the College of Nursing’s accelerated BSN program, earned the award for May. She was nominated as follows by Erika Janssen, the program’s assistant director.
“Donna is the glue that keeps the accelerated program running on schedule. She is responsible for keeping track of students’ admissions, interviews, onboarding, health requirements and numerous program processes (it would be too long to list here). We have three cohorts running at all times with 30 students each. Yet, she found the time and effort to revamp our holistic admission interview process to eliminate barriers and redundancies. This will help expedite the interview process and allow us to admit students quicker.
“Donna took the initiative to create a new virtual interview process where students can record their answers to the assigned interview question and submit them to Donna. Donna then organizes the students’ files and assigns the interviews to instructors and faculty for review. This new process allows us to continue with holistic admissions. It simultaneously enables instructors and faculty to complete the review on their own time without having to try to fit them into their busy schedules.
“Donna also streamlined our application process and moved it to an online form where students can complete the forms and submit every necessary document in one place. I know this might seem like a small task, but it takes extra time and initiative to accomplish.
“Donna is always looking for new ways to improve our processes. Her organizational skills are exceptional. She makes running an accelerated nursing program look easy. We are grateful for all she does!”
Lesa Jorgensen, a finance and administration executive assistant, earned the June award. She was nominated as follows by Kim Harrington, the unite business offer:
“Lesa is the glue that holds the Student Affairs Division together. There have been several impactful changes and there continue to be changes to the division, and Lesa smoothly adapts and assists the division through those changes. One of these big changes was the recent addition of the Academic Support for Inclusive Excellence Department to Student Affairs.
“Through COVID, Lesa was one of the few staff on campus every day. During COVID, she supported an interim vice chancellor, chaired a search for a new one and then was/is the support of the new vice chancellor.
“Currently, Lesa is completing the duties of two positions in her office.
Through all of this and more, Lesa has done an outstanding job of dealing with everything that comes across her desk. She sees what has to be done and makes sure it happens smoothly.”