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Associate Vice President for Student Services Earl Bracey with Carrie Beam
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Associate Vice President for Student Services Earl Bracey with Gretchen Steil-Weiss Heath Roush
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Student Employee, Supervisor of the Year

May 12, 2008

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MACOMB, IL - - Carrie Beam, a junior special education major from Cuba (IL), has been named Student Employee of the Year at Western Illinois University.

Beam, a student worker in the Administrative Information Management Systems Office (AIMS), was recently recognized at a luncheon sponsored by the Vice President for Student Services. Beam worked as a digital computer operator assistant in AIMS.

"Carrie learned many complicated mainframe console commands and was able to keep things up and running with or without supervision," wrote her nominator.
"When WIU migrated to the Zimbra Webmail system, Carrie was one of the first in the office to master calendars, creating work and class schedule calendars that are essential to the office. She has a variety of roles and has proven herself to be completely trustworthy, reliable and punctual, and she shows professionalism when dealing with others."

Beam received a certificate and a $750 award from the Financial Aid Office. This was the 11th year Western has celebrated National Student Employment Week.

April Huston, a post-baccalaureate student from Macomb pursuing a certificate in Africa and African Diaspora World Studies, was named the second-place winner. A student assistant in the African American Studies Office, Huston was instrumental in helping organize the 34th annual African Literature Association conference, according to her nominators.

"She was an integral part of the team working to make this conference, which welcomed more than 400 guests to campus, a success," Huston's nominator said. "She was solely responsible for maintaining the e-mail account and the files for the professional papers and panels to be presented, which was an enormous task."

Huston received a certificate and a $500 award from the Financial Aid Office.

Derek Jones, a senior political science major from Moline (IL) and student assistant in the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board Executive Institute, was named the third-place winner.

According to his nominators, Jones was "the front-line person" for the Law for Police online training course.

"Derek monitors the training website for individual officer's test scores, enters them into the database and sends the report to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board in Springfield," they wrote. "This is an important part of the certificate process for officers completing the course. He was responsible for printing and mailing certificates to officers who successfully complete online training.

Jones received $250 from the Financial Aid Office.

Gretchen Steil-Weiss, a learning specialist in Western's Disability Support Services office, was named Student Employee Supervisor of the Year. She was nominated by her student employee, Heath Roush, a senior agriculture major from Freeport (IL), who described her as "a pleasure to work with."

"She has great personal skills, and she absolutely loves and believes in her work," he wrote. "She has so much energy that whenever she walks into a room it is instantly energized by her presence. Gretchen has an uplifting attitude and a laid- back demeanor. She immediately shows concern if she sees a student employee is having a bad day and consoles the student."

Steil-Weiss, who is also a WIU alumna (B.S., teacher education, 1999), received a certificate as well as a gift certificate to the University Union Bookstore.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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