CWU remembers deceased with new student award

Bailey Smith, Staff Reporter

CWU now offers a memorial award which honors someone who has recently passed away.

Human Resources (HR) will work with potential sponsors to help personify the characteristics of the person being memorialized. Faculty and staff will also nominate a student employee who embody the same characteristics.

HR has formed a committee for rewards and recognition which help pick nominees for awards.

The committee has sent letters donors, but no sponsors have yet been found. The memorial award will be announced alongside the Student Employee of the Year Award and the Supervisor of the Year Award.

“The second week in April is when the Student Employee of the Year is recognized,” said Kathy Johnson, an HR consultant.  “The student of the year gets an article in their hometown, the winner also gets a plaque, a $50 certificate and recognition at a dinner ceremony. Winners also get to have lunch with the cabinet and President of Central Washington University and talk personally with members of the cabinet about job opportunities, ideas, and connections for jobs.”

Each spring the National Student Employment Association (NSEA) chooses the national Student Employee of the Year which recognizes outstanding contributions and achievements of students who work while they attend college.

Student Employee of the Year nominations are made by the campus Student Employment Office.

“Student employees are the biggest employee group here on campus, we really depend on them and appreciate them, so this is a really important program to honor them, and let them know how important they are on campus.” Johnson said

Nominations will also be judged on reliability, quality of work, initiative, professionalism and uniqueness of the students contributions.

Every nominee gets recognized and out of 2,000 students, there will be 18.

CWU has it’s own Student Employee of the Year Award, the winner of CWU’s award will be submitted for the state Student Employee of the Year Award. For the state award the winner will receive $100.