Karen Norton, a university services program associate for the College of Education and Human Services (COEHS), has been named the recipient of the STAR Award for June 2009. She has served UW Oshkosh since 1968.
Norton was nominated by Don Hones, Debra Talkington and Heidi Weinert. The nomination letters follow:
“Karen Norton has gone above and beyond her normal duties to assist Project ESTRELLA, a five-year federal grant, especially in her work to register alternative licensure students, arrange for weekend courses and initiate the stipend process for all grantees.
“She routinely goes out of her way to support this project, and it has allowed us to function at a high level, even before we had our own administrative support. She is an excellent candidate for this award.”
— Professor Don Hones
“Karen has and does go above and beyond in her support of all faculty and staff at COEHS. Karen helps any new faculty and staff with answers to questions and mentoring, and she does all of this with a courteous, pleasant attitude. Karen has helped every newcomer to COEHS. Without her help and assistance, everyone’s job would be more difficult, and the transition would not have been as smooth (including mine when I began). But more than this is the way in which she does this.
“In my case, if a form was due, Karen would fill the first one out for me so I would have an example for the next time. She helped by examples and assistance. Karen helped the first time by filling out the report or giving a heads up for a deadline. From there she would help with follow ups and answering any question regarding the project. She always made time to answer the question, no matter how busy. She does so graciously. Her help does not stop here: If someone needs a question answered, Karen is where they go for help. She has the answer or will find out where to find it.
“Karen takes it upon herself to help newcomers and anyone else that goes to her for help. If anyone has a question about anything, Karen is there to help. She will stop what she is doing and give all her attention to you and your question. Without her, COEHS would not run as efficiently as it does. Newcomers would have a hard job of finding out answers to their questions and where to go for answers. She is never too busy to help someone. And she does all this without fanfare. Karen has been here since 1968. She has amassed a lot of knowledge during her time here at COEHS and UWO. She shares this knowledge. I cannot imagine what many of us would have done without her when we began and what we would do without her now.”
— Debra Talkington
“Karen has gone above and beyond in her support of me in the role of an LTE. She has taken on more responsibilities to cover while I became acclimated to my position. While doing her own job, she makes certain that she is available to answer questions that I may have and to assist me if I run into a problem.
“She is an excellent mentor, and her openness and helpfulness creates an environment that allows and encourages the people around her to excel. Her support has benefited not only myself, but also the dean’s staff as a whole by ensuring that the transition has been as smooth as possible with as little interruption in services as possible. She has an amazing amount of knowledge of the University environment and shares this knowledge freely.”
— Heidi Weinert
Winners of the STAR Award receive a framed certificate, a reserved parking space for one month and a gift from University Books & More. The award for exceptional performance is presented each month to a member of the classified staff who has worked at least six months at UW Oshkosh.
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