GAINESVILLE - Gainesville State College held its annual Welcome Back Breakfast for faculty and staff where it also recognized award winners and acknowledged years of service on Monday, August 9, 2010.
The Eleanor Crawford Award, sponsored by the GC Alumni Association, was established in 1990 to recognize annually a staff member who has exhibited extraordinary loyalty, dedication, and service to the College and its employees and students. The Award is named for the College's first employee, Eleanor Crawford.
Sheree Gravenhorst, Administrative Assistant to the School of Humanities and Fine Arts was chosen as the Gainesville honoree for the Eleanor Crawford Award. Now in her tenth year at GSC, Gravenhorst is described as "cheerful and friendly as well as professional." Her nominators wrote of her "extraordinary skills and abilities, intuitive and enthusiastic working style, and desire to go the extra mile with students, faculty and other staff members."
John Williams, e-Learning and Media Support Specialist, was chosen as the Oconee honoree for the Eleanor Crawford Award. He has been a member of the GSC Oconee staff for three years. Williams was described by his nominators as someone who is "always willing to help, infinitely patient and responsive to eLearning issues, epitomizes the spirit of support and goes the extra mile, and exemplifies the dedication to GSC that is represented by this staff award."
Sandra Garner, Deborah B. Lilly, Kathleen Simmons and Lisa L. Watson were recognized for 25 years of service to the institution. Other longevity awards included:
20 years: Lee Clendenning, Jim Hammond, Chris Jonick, Shelia Miccoli, Gina Reed, Warren Rogers, and Susan Smith.
15 years: Thomas Burson, Piotr Hebda, Alex Lowery, Joan Marler, Major Nelson and Peggy Strickland.
10 years: Amy Collins, Sheree Gravenhorst, John O'Sullivan, Jeff Pardue, Connie Ringger, Kerry Stewart, Clayton Teem and Cathy Whiting.
Five years: Steve Aanes, Melissa Adams, John Amoss, Garfield Anderson, Walt Bready, Kimberly Campbell, Shannon Chandler, Tashiana Cheeks, Nicole Dowd, Paul Glaser, Jeff Heagy, Adrienne Henley, Joslyn Hilliard, Stephanie Hungerford, Beth Kendall, Kathy Martin, Angie Murrell, Debbie Pierce, Tom Preston, Guillermo Rodriguez, Marvene Saenz, Eric Skipper, Andria Smith, Samantha Thompson, Margaret Williamson, Carrie Wills and Ben Wynne.
Two faculty members, one each from the Gainesville and Oconee Campuses, were also recognized for " Best Practices" at the College. Honored were Sue Doyle-Porttillo, Professor of Psychology from the Gainesville Campus and Ed Glauser, our Alcohol and other Drugs/Wellness Counselor from the Oconee Campus.
Doyle-Porttillo was recognized for her efforts to increase GSC student participation in research. She requires her PSYC 1101 and PSYC 2150 students to engage in a semester-long program in which they work as a team to develop an original hypothesis, design and run a study to test it, analyze their results, present a 30-minute lecture on their findings to the class, and address criticisms of their work from the class. Her project was regionally recognized when it was included in the Engaging Minds: Best Practices in the Teaching of Psychology conference at Kennesaw State University.
Glauser was recognized for the fact that he has been instrumental in developing and presenting a sophisticated, effective Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD)/ Wellness program that has served not only GSC students but also local high school students and other members of the community. His program is innovative for the college in that it broadened the AOD program into a series of lecture and presentations for the entire semester drew speakers from local social services and law enforcement agencies and also engaged several national guest speakers.
As is tradition, President Martha T. Nesbitt gave her State of the College address to the faculty and staff. This year's title was
" Strengthening Our Focus: Student Engagement." She began her comments by saying, "This is really our New Year, not January 1. It is a time to reflect on our accomplishments and challenges this past year and chart our course for the year ahead."
Nesbitt emphasized, "The main thrust of our renewed attention on student success will focus on engaging students, both inside and outside the classroom. I am very hopeful that this theme will be central to everything we do this year and will strengthen our focus on student success by becoming a permanent part of our fabric."
For the first time in the history of the breakfast, Closed Captioning was provided for the hearing impaired. This service was provided by Office of Disability Services.
Fall semester classes will begin on Monday, August 16, 2010.
Sunday
May 19th, 2024
8:31AM
