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Student Employee Appreciation

Student Employee Appreciation Week: April 5- 9, 2021

Student Employee Appreciation 2020- 2021

The National Student Employment Association designates one week each year to formally recognize the substantial contributions of students who work on campus and recognize the important role that student employment has on the higher education experience.

During this academic year, over 1,200 student employee are employed by the college. These student employees play a key role in our educational, research, and operational excellence. Student employees perform invaluable services with enthusiasm, dedication and initiative. We have all experienced a difficult year and our student employees adaptability, initiative, and exceptional work ethic were instrumental in the success of departments and the colleges mission.

We celebrate National Student Employee Appreciation Week by setting aside time to recognize the value of our student employees.  Below we recognize some of the outstanding contributions and achievements of our Macalester Student Employees!

Celebration and Recognition of our Student Employees

Admissions

Student employees in the Admissions Office have made an outstanding transition to helping recruit prospective students virtually. They have helped create and develop virtual campus tours; they have conducted hundreds of virtual one-on-one chats; they’ve connected with students on an international level and they have been involved with developing online content. We are full of gratitude for their amazing ability to pivot with us as we implemented new approaches to recruit and enroll future Macalester students.

Alumni Engagement

Courteney S and Katie W have been an integral part of our Alumni Engagement team. Through all the challenges of this year, they’ve continued to provide a direct line of support for our Macalester alumni during the pandemic–helping them navigate the transition to virtual programming so they can stay connected with the College and their classmates, and assisting those who have reached out wanting to rekindle friendships from long ago. Their dedication to providing a high-quality alumni experience truly shows in the strength of our alumni community!

Art & Art History

We created a weekly newsletter at the outset of this difficult year, and it has been building and growing into a wonderful way for people to feel connected, see what’s happening and learn a thing or two. The students each submit an article, recipe, or crossword puzzle every week. We spotlight faculty and staff in the department, student work, and senior majors. We have celebrated Black History Month, Native American Heritage Month, and Women’s History Month. We hosted a competition for a logo, and one of the students designed the look of the newsletter. The students are working very hard to fulfill our mission, and I think they’ve done an amazing job. We even got kudos from a Macalester mom who asked to be put on our mailing list. Many thanks for acknowledgement of this hard-working, good-natured, inclusive and thoughtful group of students. They have made this year so much better for the whole department.

Asian Languages & Cultures

Our hardworking and utterly delightful Chinese Tutors deserve so much recognition!  These are challenging times for everyone, to be sure; our Chinese Tutors, lead by the indefatigable Grace S, followed by Sam D,  Victor W, Fan Z, and Yike Z take on all of their responsibilities with sheer calm and dedication.  They field questions from our 1st Year to Advanced students, lead Tea Social activities, and step up whenever asked to.  I know I speak on behalf of all Chinese faculty when I say we have come to know that we can completely rely on you.  I only hope that you know how much you are appreciated.  ~Patty Anderson

Bon App Catering Department

The Catering department of Bon Appetit has certainly changed over the last year, as all areas of our lives have.  Our team has been tasked to create a mini Café Mac at the Leonard Center for the Student Athletes.  The team has done an amazing job in their new “operations” and is in part due to the amazing first year students that were added to the roster this year for support.

Wudase S.Y joined our team from California.  Nobody would ever guess that this is Wudase’s first job in foodservice.  Her organizational skills, planning and being quick on her feet brings great support to the team.  She is a very hard worker and jumps right in, a complete natural!

Uy N also joined our team from California.  Uy brought his previous customer service skills with him not only to delight the team but the student athletes as well.  He supports in any way he can to create the ultimate guest experience.  Uy is always willing to take on extra if someone needs a shift off, or any additional support.

Megan D joins us from Wisconsin.  She describes herself as an outgoing person skilled at operating in fast-paced environments with demanding objectives for sales, service and quality.  This is not only a recipe for success in her role as a Catering Assistant, but after working with her and getting to know her one would realize that is almost understated!  The qualities and experience Megan brought with her have strengthened the team tremendously!

Café Mac

Café Mac has had some unique challenges this academic year, and the student work force this semester has risen to the occasion in spades!  I would love to highlight the entire crew, as each and every one of them has been instrumental to our continued success in these trying times, but I would like to name a few students in particular:

Xavier C: Freshmen Xavier continues to surprise us with his work ethic. Xavier is an absolute joy to have around the café as he has taken on nearly every role, and has been successful in each.  From serving the athletes at the Leonard center as a catering attendant, to slinging smoothies as a barista at the Grille, Xavier is a jack of all trades.  He has even taken on a leadership role at guiding other student workers through their various shifts.  He is always happy to help and does it with good cheer.

Braden N: Braden works on the café side, and his previous food service experience makes for a good matching with Bon Appetit.  Braden is one of our most knowledgeable student employees in relation to working in a kitchen.  He communicates efficiently with staff and fellow workers on the needs of his station and the café.  Most recently, Braden has shown his leadership qualities in guiding new workers on the “ins and outs” of café Mac.  His calm presence serving our guest and student body is a welcome addition to the dining hall.

Noah H: Noah took to the back of house quite quickly, and any shift with Noah is infinitely much smoother because of it.  Working the dish room can be a difficult job, but it is essential.  Noah has shown us many nights of hard work and dedication. Noah has integrated himself with the Bon Appetit team and student work force rather quickly.  Noah’s role with us, and by extent the Mac community, is ensuring that pans are scrubbed, cleaned and readied for the next meal.  He also assist in taking out the compostable, recycling and garbage.  He is also a very talented artist that delights fellow staff members with imagery of his creative works.

Fiona M: Fiona works the Grille as a barista, and has taken complete ownership of her station from day one.  A quick study, Fiona learned coffees and smoothies like a pro.  She is very good with student customers.  The Grille is a very busy station during the dinner meal period, lots of moving part and people to handle, but cool and collected Fiona handles it all with panache.  She takes her job seriously and is always looking for ways to improve the customer experience.  Her role within our community is important because people are hungry, lined up and ready to eat, and Fiona makes it all that much easier for them.

Campus Operations

We would like to submit both the Building Manager and Information Desk/Reservations staff in the department of Campus Operations for highlighting during Student Employee Appreciation Week. Both of these teams have been instrumental in helping keep our Campus Center and community safe during COVID-19 and they help ensure our community has access to necessary services.

The Building Manager staff has managed the Perch Points across campus to ensure our community guidelines are upheld and that students are able to utilize these spaces safely to build community (from a distance). Their work has not been glamorous (and has involved difficult conversations with peers at times), but without their hard work and dedication, re-opening the campus as safely as we did would not have been possible. Members of this team also provided support to the COVID testing process during Modules 1 and 2.

The Information Desk staff have ensured that on-campus students are able to access critical items such as transportation options with Metro Transit, which is subsidized by the College. The Information Desk also serves as an information clearinghouse for campus and can help students answer questions they may have on a daily basis.

The Reservations staff have helped campus navigate how to find space for a variety of uses over the last year. Examples include outdoor classroom spaces during Module 1, private consultation rooms for students to use for appointments, and tabling space in/around the campus for student organizations and departments to promote their events and activities.

Both the Building Manager and Information Desk/Reservations teams have allowed the student body, staff, and faculty to access necessary services and helped allow events and activities to transition to COVID-safe procedures.

Center for Religious Studies and Spiritual Life

Thank you to each one of the student workers in the Center for Religious and Spiritual life for their continued support and hard work in taking responsibility for our building to make sure it is open to the Macalester community and for keeping it safe for all who visit. You are truly a treasure!

Center for Study Away

I would like to recognize the work of all of our student workers: Sophia S, Sophia A, Kody H,  Sukari W, and Ifraah D for their outstanding work during the Fall 2020!

Fall is the busiest time at the study away office, as we work with hundreds of sophomores, taking them step by step towards an important moment – their application to Macalester to study away.

There are many pieces  – First Steps Info Sessions, individual advising meetings, necessary questionnaires to submit in order to take the next step in the process. CSA staff had to reinvent many of these in-person activities and translate them to zoom and on-line versions – very often with very short time left to provide training for student workers in order for them to do their job and do it remotely.

Our hardworking, smart and flexible student workers were able to learn everything very quickly and provided excellent support to CSA staff and to all students who connected with the Center for Study Away during the application period. Their work really made a difference and helped the Center for Study Away to receive approx. 280 study away applications.

Civic Engagement Center

The Macalester Learning Link program was created this past fall to support the children of staff and faculty during this time of remote learning. While all of the students involved did amazing work, we would like to highlight a few Learning Link Tutors:

Anna S commitment to tutoring kids and building relationships has clearly shown through the children’s involvement in the program and the praise we have received from families. Anna has run beloved Enrichment classes that have kept kids engaged for months over this past year!

Hugh G. openness to meeting and building relationships with new students has allowed us to make sure that all tutor requests could happen. Hugh’s interests and passions have translated into engaging and creative Enrichment classes about the world outdoors. Hugo is a great communicator and a reliable team member!

Cecilia G J created long-lasting relationships with her students and families. She showed commitment and interest in the program by running multiple Enrichment Classes that supported new skill building for children. Cecilia’s commitment and attention to detail have been greatly appreciated!

Disability Services

I’m pleased and thrilled to thank our amazing student worker, Isabella G.  Izzy has been amazing this past year! Izzy does so much with managing our social media accounts, answering emails, random projects and so much more! Izzy is very detailed and creative and our department would not run smoothly without her work!

Educational Studies

All the way from LA, our student employee in Educational Studies, Sena T, has made my job so much less complex in these difficult times. Sena put together a student/faculty Zoom party at the end of first semester, a Padlet for our classes, posters for our events, research for faculty…right on it as if she was in the office. Thank you Sena, you helped me avoid tears.

All the way from Seattle, Hanan Sherka and I met once in person and then she successfully did many great projects afar for WGSS. Creating a Padlet of WGSS majors and minors, Padlet for upcoming classes, many beautiful posters, responding to faculty needs, keeping me from tears many times with her unbelievable talent and speed. Your quick turnaround, Hanan, kept me calm so many, many times. Thank you so much.

Employment Services

Sara R and Katie F, THANK YOU for making such a valuable contribution to our team! You make the days run so much more smoothly. Thank you for the many things you both do. We truly appreciate you!

Environmental Studies 

Submitted by Chris Wells

I’d like to recognize Alex A.’s work as the preceptor for ENVI 280: Environmental Classics in Mods 2 and 3. In addition to helping students in the course during the conceptual and revision stages of their formal writing assignments, she brought a number of creative, interactive assignments to the group that helped us all build a strong sense of community at a time when that seemed impossible. Thank you, Alex!

Submitted by Dr. Marla Perez Lugo, PhD & Dr. Cecilio Ortiz Farcia

I want to highlight the work done by my research assistants. They are working on a collaborative project about energy governance in Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria in September of 2017 with researchers and students from Northeastern University.

As you may know, hurricane Maria’s catastrophic impact in the archipelago of Puerto Rico brought the total collapse of that system, and as the consequence of not having electric service for almost a year, almost 3k people died. I hired 4 Macalester students from various departments and programs, to work on the first stages of this project:

Olivia H – Sociology major. She is in charge of researching the impact of various disasters in the electrical system through an analysis of presidential disaster declarations.
Elliot W – Geography major. He is working on identifying what stakeholders are being represented in federal policy regarding Puerto Rico’s electrical system.
Estelle T W- International Studies major. She is working on identifying who the main stakeholders are at the local and federal levels with the purpose of answering the following question… who’s voice is being excluded from the decision-making process?
Gretta M L- Latin American Studies major. Greta is designing the projects webpage to publish the results and creating repositories of knowledge that can be used by other researchers interested in the topic.

The four of them are doing an excellent job, that compares well to the work being done by masters and PhD students. I am very proud of them.

English

I would like to nominate for Student Worker Recognition our Newsletter Editor Team. This team writes, edits, and publishes a monthly departmental newsletter, The Words, for our majors, minors, faculty, and alums. They create their work in Google Docs, they format and edit their work in WordPress, and publish the newsletter through Mailchimp so they have developed and demonstrate high-level writing, editing, and technology skills. Even after needing to go fully remote, they have not missed a deadline and the newsletter quality and content has been exceptional. Often their work involves topical related to other departments and experiences on campus so their work gets distributed on a wider college basis. They are talented and impressive team. Shout out to Malcolm C, Kira S, Alice A, Dalton G and Teddy H.

I would like to recommend our Office Assistant Team for recognition for their work this year. The Office Assistants including Hilary K, Anna C, and Chloe M and their Office Assistant Supervisor, Kelsey S-M. They work hard each day to provide office assistance to the department for faculty tasks and projects, event creation and implementation, and hosting our weekly Coffee House for our major and minor community.  Kelsey and her team are creative and dedicated to supporting events and complete tasks in this primarily remote environment. They are skilled, flexible, and dependable at all times.

Kelsey went above and beyond in creating videos for training on office tasks as it could not be done in person and this has been invaluable to all student workers. She helps to collect information on our student workers and our student community being instrumental in our Student Worker Info Cards in the department. Kelsey also is playing a vital role as member of our Senior Planning Group helping to design this year’s departmental Tshirt and develop our faculty/senior lunch series called “Keep Calm and Search ON”.

I would like to nominate our Social Media Team for student worker recognition. Patrick C-B was our Social Media Strategist last Spring and returned this Spring in this capacity. Chloe M, as a first-year, jumped in to do some Social media as well. Now they work together as the Social Media team and they are doing great things. They are responsible for posting about all events and announcements within the department on both of our Facebook pages and our Instagram account. This is challenging to maintain as we have less in-person events this year but they are managing to keep us alive on Social Media. This team also created two campaigns to engage our community on Instagram. One is wordplay! which is a monthly contest to which students are invited to submit their work based on some prompts for that month. The other campaign is Book Buds where they seek book recommendations from our community based on the theme of the month and then publish the annotated list of recommendations. They created a plan for announcing, collecting, and releasing the information for both campaigns on a regularly scheduled basis.  Their enthusiasm and creativity have enhanced our Social Media presence across many mediums.

We are excited to put forth our English Department Student Worker Podcast Team for Student Worker Recognition. The podcast team is new this year and they have done amazing podcast episodes called The Ramblings that focus on English major seniors. English Dept Podcast Team member: Anna C,  Hilary K, Teddy H, and Kira S, Alice A, Dalton G, and Malcolm C.

A special shoutout to Amy V. Amy served as a newsletter editor for our monthly student newsletter. In that role,  Amy was truly amazing. Amy is a very competent writer and an extremely talented editor.  Amy’s individual work and her work as a member of the newsletter editor team help to elevate  the newsletter quality to a higher level. Amy was always dependable to meet deadlines and was  very supportive of the efforts of new editors. Amy also accepted and successfully completed  faculty editing tasks that required high-level skills. Amy was a valued and trusted co-worker and  supervisee.  

Facilities Services

To all the Custodial/Recycle student workers, THANK YOU ! You pivoted when asked to and adjusted where we in facilities needed you most. Your willingness to work during a pandemic aided in opening the campus for everyone to come back to a cleaner and safe campus.

Geography

Geography would like to thank ALL Mac student employees who help keep our community, courses & campus running smoothly!

“I have worked with an amazing group of TAs this year, including Nick J, Nethmi B, Marisa W, Grace A, Quinn F, Zoe T & Nick S. I could not have successfully run my classes without their dedication and hard work, made all the more difficult by the challenges of COVID-19. I cannot thank them enough.” ~ Bill Moseley, Professor

“Finn O and Juthi D summoned their creativity super powers this year in their role as Geography Social Media Assistants!  I am very grateful for their assistance and couldn’t have done it without them.”  ~ Laura Kigin, Geography Department Coordinator

“Getting Remote Sensing ready for a module and remote system of instruction could not have been possible without the help of Josh F and Maggie J. With diligence and independence, they work in reformatting what used to be the first five labs of class into two condensed ones. They work contributed significantly to have to class ready for Module 4” ~ Xavier Haro-Carrión, Post Doctoral Fellow

“In a year full of rapid changes and high-stakes adjustments in higher education, Jack A and Claire H have worked diligently and thoughtfully to engage and support our students. I appreciate their candor and commitment and know that they’ve helped to make online learning both effective and supportive. I am grateful for their dedication and companionship.” ~ Dan Trudeau, Professor

“I have a fantastic group of Lab Assistants this year, including Maggie J, Anya L P, Brian W, Rachel M, Annabel G, Sar V, Karson H, and Augusta F! They have demonstrated an adaptability and resilience that goes above and beyond what was expected. Not only did they all (quickly) learn two new technology platforms (ArcGIS Online + Esri Story Maps) at the beginning of this year, they were also an invaluable resource to my teaching replacement while I was on parental leave in the Fall. You all amaze me and I am so grateful to work with all of you this year! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!” ~ Ashley Nepp, GIS Lab Instructor

This year, my super team of TAs included Josh F (twice), Elliot W, Karson H, and Quinn F.  Josh and Elliot literally saved (!) the student experience in Statistical Research Methods in Mod 1 by stepping in with additional office hours and communication to the class when I had to have an emergency appendectomy.  Karson was a much appreciated shot of enthusiasm for Metro Analysis in Mod 2, helping students with their city analysis projects and attending every synchronous session — with his camera on, no less.  😉  For SRM in Mod 3, students are raving about Quinn and Josh and their kindness and willingness to meet on short notice to address those frustrating statistics questions.  I appreciate all of you so much — thank you!!  ~  Laura Smith

A giant THANK YOU to our team of GIS Teaching and Lab Assistants, Sar, Maggie, Brian, Karson, Annabel, Anja, and Rachel, for their outstanding work across all Mods but especially during Fall 2020 when we had a new software, new instructor and a whole new online system!  You are awesome and your knowledge, technical expertise, and especially your kindness and patience is appreciated more than know.  THANK YOU!!! – Holly

Hamre Center for Health & Wellness

Our student employees work collaboratively as a team and partner with the professional staff. The students develop and implement initiatives that enhance the health of our community. Their accomplishments are many; most Mac students have some connection to the health promotion initiatives and may not even know it.

Their achievements include:

  • Virtual Wellness 5K
  • Sexy education for first-years
  • Health Highlights and Monthly Hamre Center Newsletters
  • Wellness Wednesdays
  • Drug Curricula using harm reduction
  • Addiction and Know Overdose workshops
  • Mental Health @ Mac Week
  • Grow with a Plant Challenge
  • PAWS, HWC, and Sexy Instagram
  • Safer Sex and Relationship Week
  • Kit Requests: aromatherapy, sleep, self-care, safer sex, fentanyl test strips
  • “This is Fine” Podcasts
  • Mac Cookbook

International Student Programs

International Student Programs’ student staff were invaluable to ISP’s success since the beginning of the pandemic. Their support started with communication. International students were traveling home or to locations in the Twin Cities as well as other parts of the US.  ICE regulations require students report through ISP where they are residing in the US.  ISP student staff helped improve our forms, surveys as well as our collecting and processing of information. Related to this, staff continues to help us connect with students who are less responsive. Countless days (and evenings) student staff received a text requesting quasi-urgent support to help us connect with a student and our staff never hesitated to help. ISP student employees also needed to make numerous updates on the ISP website and they kept the site updated through critical months in which there was not clarity as well as offering useful suggestions for improvements. Student staff would attend weekly Zoom Q&A sessions open to current students and incoming students as well as helping with Admissions’ webinars for incoming students. We worked collaboratively to create a comprehensive infographic about international students’ rights and protesting safely. An important part of summer employment was connecting to make sure all 300+ students complied with the requirement to file nonresident alien federal and state taxes. All office student staff are certified by the IRS each year as “Foreign Student” tax assistants in the VITA program.  Tax assistance typically required a Zoom meeting; some of them quite complicated. ISP mentors continued mentoring through the pandemic.  Mentors include office staff as well as students hired to focus on mentoring.  In a typical year, mentors visit assigned students weekly during the fall semester. This year, ISP mentors continued meeting first-years through Zoom. This included trying to have Zoom meetings with half or more of the mentees studying remotely in other parts of the world due to visa unavailability and travel restrictions. ISP mentors have helped with remote and in-person orientations during all four modules. For the virtual or remote orientations, the mentors created videos about getting started, adjusting to academics in the US, as well as humor and ambiguous references.  In person orientation help included picking students up at the airport at all hours of day, helping them open bank accounts and get needed supplies.  ISP student staff are responsible, likable and take initiative. Working with ISP student staff and mentors is the best part of working as professional staff at ISP.

Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenships Dean’s Office

We in the IGC Dean’s office are grateful for the student employees who charged ahead with us while working remotely over the last year, who faithfully checked in and out of their shifts on GChat, who participated in our Zoom staff meetings from cars, in masks from perching spots, from busy apartments with roommates in the background, and with dogs on their laps. We appreciate and are enriched by the work you’ve done of projects, large and small, profound and prosaic. Thank you for your commitment to the work of the IGC during these challenging times! Here’s a quick look at their valuable contributions.

Journey A has contributed to a research project looking at issues of policing as context for the Chauvin trial.

Matt G is a doer of many things! He works on graphic design projects and is also contributing to a research project assembling a timeline of the history of the IGC.

Sophia G – Sophia works on a number of administrative projects; most recently she did an excellent job compiling an IGC playlist for a staff team-building activity.

Diana H – Diana is working on a project exploring Hmong professors and community leaders around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

Katie H – Katie has been doing fantastic work on a project dedicated to the history of the IGC at Macalester. 

Olivia H-W- Olivia contributes to administrative projects including the IGC web site and coordinating Google Docs and Sheets.

Rachel P- Rachel is contributing to a group that is taking a critical look at the history of University Studies. They are exploring how certain assumptions and ways of operating have become the “norm” in academic disciplines.

Vivian P – Vivian is making valuable contributions to a research project examining the history of internationalism, multiculturalism, and the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester.

Leah R – Is working on a research project looking at issues of policing as context for the Chauvin trial.

Zinnia S – Zinnia is our primary graphic designer as well as being the main social media manager for the IGC. She has also served as behind-the-scenes tech support for some of our large IGC online events. Additionally, Zinnia has been a part of the group that is creating an historical timeline of the work of the IGC.

Maya S – Maya has been a great addition to our team! Most recently, she has worked on a project that will help students more easily find and apply for international internships. 

Senior Student Employee Appreciations

Nico D L has been a delightful and valuable member of the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship (IGC) student staff for the last three and one half years. Nico joined us in the second semester of his first year at MAC and we have appreciated his contribution to the team ever since. Nico brings a willing attitude and a warm, relational demeanor to his role in the IGC. His work and contributions to projects are thoughtful and considered. Nico successfully participated in a research project with IGC faculty fellow, Prof. Brian Lozenski last term and is currently working on a research project with IGC Dean Donna Maeda this term. Nico brings strong insights and critical thinking skills to this work. He is a fun and eager team player, willing to do whatever he’s asked, and producing high quality work. Nico has strengthened our student employee team connections with his warm, open way, and shown leadership in our team meetings that models authentic engagement for newer team members. Nico has been a joy and an asset in the IGC since Spring 2018!

Willow F: We appreciate the energy and interests Willow has brought to her four years as a student employee of the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship (IGC). Willow joined us during her first year at Macalester with enthusiasm and interest in all things IGC and has continued to contribute to IGC programing, hospitality, and projects throughout her college years. Willow is a self-starter, whose interests in civic engagement led her to an internship and ongoing role in Representative Keith Ellison’s office over several years. She has contributed to running the International Roundtable event as well as co-led a student session in the Roundtable. Willow has done excellent work helping with event hosting and administrative tasks, spreadsheet preparation, research projects, and program brainstorming. Willow’s contribution to the IGC is enhanced because she is plugged in so many places on campus, including as a preceptor in the Political Science Department. Willow has been a reliable, helpful, engaged contributor to the work of the IGC!

Sadia M has brought a willing attitude, a welcoming presence, and graphic design skills to the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship (IGC). Sadia joined the IGC team Spring semester 2020, (was in person with the IGC for a couple of months) and is returning to the team for Mod 4 of her senior year. Although her in person time with the IGC was brief, we are grateful for her friendly presence at the front desk then and we appreciate her contribution to promotions for IGC events now.

Amy V has been an incredible asset to the Dean’s Office in the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship (IGC) every term since she arrived on campus in the Fall of 2017. Right from the start Amy has brought an always willing, always cheerful, always welcoming spirit to her work at the IGC reception desk. She has demonstrated warm cooperation and collegiality with her student employee colleagues, and has taken a leadership role in modeling best practices in all aspects of her work. Her esprit de corps is unparalleled.  Amy always shows great willingness for projects and tasks, but often additionally shows delight in engaging new challenges.  Amy sees the big picture and is attuned to fine detail: this is a powerful combination. She has an intuitive sense of how things work together and where repercussions might surface, and she notices the smallest inconsistencies or errors in communication pieces, across the spectrum of her work with our office. Amy is an exceptionally pleasant, prompt, reliable, thorough, willing student employee. Her work is consistently outstanding! Amy’s digital technology skills are strong as well as her work ethic and commitment to timely, accurate, excellent task completion.

Library

We want to cheer our wonderful student employees for working diligently during this unique, often challenging year to support us, each other, and the Macalester community. We cheer each one of you for your individual contributions! Your work and your perseverance has enabled us all to reach out to our community during a stressful time by:

  • Keeping our building open!
  • Working with staff to reach out to our community via social media and digital and print signage.
  • Helping students discover new databases.
  • Helping faculty teach by getting video materials online just-in-time.
  • Making library materials available for academic and recreational needs.
  • Creating a welcoming environment with signage, snowflakes, flowers, and more.
  • Creating and sharing Love from the Library postcards and face photo buttons.
  • Opening countless boxes and getting materials ready for checkout and use.
  • Processing library materials, including rush materials for classes.
  • Receiving all library journals and getting them on the shelves for our users.
  • Creating book displays and online new-book galleries.
  • Being our eyes and ears for community questions and needs.

Thank you! From your grateful library staff and supervisors

Library- Archives

Thank you to Teresa, Daria, Priya, Liv, and Lidija—the College Archives would not be able to function without all your help!

Students working in the Archives help provide research, information, and collections materials to everyone from external researchers to fellow students. More importantly, the students help with all aspects of caring for and managing our collections, which in turn, allows us to provide sources that tell the stories of Mac and its community members. Due to their dedicated efforts and care, future understandings of our Macalester past and present will hopefully be all the richer.

Macalester Fund

The Mac Fund’s Outreach Center student employees are the heart and voice of the Macalester Fund. The work that they do, connecting with Macalester alumni and having critical conversations about giving, makes all work at the Mac Fund possible. The conversations they have with the alumni community are important sources of connection between the college and our alumni community.

Despite all the challenges and hardships of this past year, the OC students have never failed to bring their kindness, creativity, and dedication to their work. Thank you so much to each and every one of the fabulous Mac Fund Outreach Center students!

MAX Center

We, the MAX Center staff, would like to express our gratitude to our wonderful student staff, who fearlessly continued their good work in the virtual environment. During Fall term (Mods 1 and 2), our student tutoring staff:

  • Provided 799 hours of STEM tutoring for classes in MSCS, Chemistry and Economics

  • Provided 455 hours of Writing tutoring across the campus in Fall Semester in Mods 1 and 2.

  • Provided SI support for 15 courses.

Our office currently employs a total of 56 student employees:  23 STEM tutors, 14 Writing Tutors, 12 SI Leaders, and 7 Office Assistants

Please celebrate the wonderful work of our student staff!

Office of Student Leadership & Engagement

OSLE student employees have proven themselves to be an exemplary and collaborative group of students. Adapting our work environments to the present time has been a necessary challenge and this team has gone above and beyond to ensure OSLE can still serve students in their leadership and engagement efforts. Each of them are kind, respectful and positive communicators. Due to fully remote work, they all went through a lot of change in their daily work, but remained positive and went above and beyond. The merited shout outs are as follows:

Precious D- Precious has done a fantastic job learning and absorbing the ins and outs of our new Student Org software Presence. Going the extra mile and preparing training videos has been a great resource and tool for our student organizations who are operating remotely. Precious’ positive attitude is infectious, we will miss you after you graduate this spring!

Serena P- Mac @ Nites and other event planning has gone smoothly and seamlessly because of Serena!  Their impeccable communication skills and rapport with staff and vendors has been instrumental in facilitating these events. Serena’s creativity has provided many fun and engaging social opportunities to students seeking connection during these strange times.

Tokosang L- OSLE’s social media has been nothing short of exceptional thanks to Tokosang! Not only has she increased our Instagram followers; she has also diversified the content by adding new topics. Toko’s ability to connect with others on social media speaks to her outstanding communication and relational skills!

Teddy H- is a skilled and creative program planner, educator, and student leader who brings a constructive lens to everything he does. Teddy’s work is grounded in their deep care for the Macalester student body. Teddy, we are so glad your passions for supporting student transitions and promoting student leadership have led us to our continued collaborations with you throughout this year. We have no doubt your Orientation and leadership work has (and will) positively impact Mac students for a long time to come!

We are truly grateful to have these outstanding students work in OSLE!

Purchasing & Accounts Payable

I would like to recognize the achievements of our Student Worker Luc J over the past year. Luc has been crucial in documenting a new Pcard reconciliation process and processing each month’s submissions. The job can be rather monotonous, but each week Luc embraces the week’s duties without complaint. Instead he always has a cheerful and upbeat attitude. He has also undertaken the processing of 1000’s of Accounts Payable documents into a new digital filing system. He was quick to take on the new responsibilities and understand the process. Luc has been a joy to work with over the past year. I am grateful for all his help.

Spanish and Portuguese

Tutors, Preceptors, Accelerated Lab Instructors

We are personally humbled by the way our Spanish and Portuguese Student Staff stepped up to the new tutoring system we put in place this year to respond to the pandemic, and to their precepting roles!

Not only did our students own and engage with the new system and approach of the department as if it was the most natural thing to do, but they made a point to give students they work with and the professors they collaborated with all their positive energy, attention, empathy, and care. Each one of our students seems to have grown even more from this beautiful experience despite the dreariness of the year. Words are not enough to express our gratitude and pride in our Student Staff. !Animo!

Spanish and Portuguese Office Assistant

Imagine having a student, totally new to a department, and having to work entirely remotely this year! Imagine the most efficient student you can think of: committed, proactive, responsible, creative, fast learner, and to top it all with a beautiful personality! Well this is our Spanish and Portuguese Office Assistant for this year: Isabel S-W! Isabel is our rock. We are truly blessed and lucky to have such a star on our team. !Mil gracias Isabel!

Latin American Studies Program Office Assistant

Anyone meeting Amelia M B for the first time would love her right away! But Amelia is way beyond just lovable. Amelia is dedicated, fun, committed, engaged and very efficient. Amelia has been instrumental this year in taking the LAS social media to another level of visibility. The LAS FaceBook page has never been as vibrant as now with all of her postings. Amelia’s dedication to her position and to the program shows up also in the beautiful flyers she makes for our events, the vibrant class flyers she offers to the community, and the amazing pro-activity and positive energy she displays to work with all of us at the LA and on assigned projects. Amelia’s work and approach to life is a reflection of a caring personality, a bright mind combined to a beautiful heart. Thank you Dear Amelia. The LAS program is lucky to have someone like you on board.

Sociology

Inge P-S: Inge has been brilliant at keeping up our social media posts, creating community while we are all physically distant. She has also helped with class projects, particularly in assisting students who were testing surveys. Her feedback contributed to these projects’ success. She has also contributed to the success of events co-sponsored by the Sociology department such as the event “Youth-led Protests Amid Political Crisis in Peru.”

Elizabeth P:  Elizabeth has responded quickly to scanning requests and broken through numerous barriers to complete the scanning.  She has always been quick to respond to requests and eager to help in any way. She helped to coordinate activities for classes in ways that have contributed to student learning this year.

Isabel C:  Isabel has faced many challenges this year and continues to forge ahead. She remains kind and compassionate, and helpful.  Her resiliency in the face of obstacles is admirable. She has been a bridge between the department and her fellow senior students when it comes to issues of planning for our coming celebrations.