APAC 2009 AP Contribution Award
The second annual AP Contribution Award has been given to two outstanding AP staff members.
Ching-Guo Wu,
Information Systems Coordinator with Administrative Services Information Systems (ASIS).
Ching-Guo’s three nominators commented on his positive, can-do attitude and stress that one of his great strengths is his willingness to share his time and his extensive technical knowledge and skills with his team. One nominator said that Ching-Guo has an “amazing ability to design, analyze, process, program and troubleshoot highly complex systems and to implement innovative, modular solution sets from which pieces can be utilized by other applications.” He is commended for his ability to multi-task, his listening skills and is, says another nominator, an “incredible asset to our customer departments and has created a host of on-line applications that are used at one time or another by virtually every WSU student, faculty and staff person.
Ching-Guo is especially commended for his beyond-the-call efforts during a three month period to completely rewrite the on-line residence hall and fraternity recruitment application. He “sacrificed his nights and weekends over a three month period to complete this project”, said one nominator, and, says another, is “amazingly unselfish with his time and knowledge.
All nominators stress that Ching-Guo is an AP employee who truly goes “above and beyond the call”!
Mary Stender,
Academic Coordinator, WSU-Vancouver
Mary was chosen for the award in 2009 based on her commitment to advising students in the business program at WSU Vancouver. Comments from her nominator include “Mary’s advice and support [of students] during their time at WSU helped to guide them on a successful career path”. One of Mary’s strengths is her ability to help students learn how to make their own decisions and take responsibility for the choices they make. She helps prepare them to be independent decision makers.
Examples of Mary’s creative methods of finding solutions to challenging problems includes creation of a mentoring system known as “Professional Coffees” In this setting, four or five area professionals are invited to campus for an hour long ‘coffee’break’. They sit at different tables with four to five students to engage in conversation. At specific intervals, the professionals rotate to a new table and speak with the next group. In a short period of time, students have made contact with a handful of professionals who are willing to continue to follow up with them in the future.
Mary also created an advising handbook targeted toward business students.
Overall, Mary’s nominator says she is “fiercely committed to student success and student quality” and that “the success of our advising efforts is primarily due to the quality and commitment that Mary exhibits in her work.
Congratulations to both Ching-Guo and Mary for their outstanding efforts and contributions to WSU!
2008 AP Contribution Award Winner
Administrative Professional Staff Honored
Sandi Baldwin
Sandi Baldwin, Principal Assistant with Facilities Operations at WSU Spokane, received the 2007-2008 Employee Excellence Award in recognition of her "outstanding contributions to the WSU Spokane campus and the greater commnunity". The annual award is sponsored by the Spokane Teachers Credit Union.
Ms. Baldwin, who has been with WSU Spokane for nearly seven years, is noted by her nominators as the epitome of a great employee--truly an ambassador for the campus and the University. After hearing these and other accolades in front of a group of her peers, she was presented with the Administrative Professional Staff Excellence Award. “There is no favoritism in how she responds to others—she treats everyone with trust and respect,” said Carolyn Losh, WSU Spokane mail services lead.
“People go to Sandi for everything from complaints, requests, advice, a funny story, or just an ear to listen—she’s always there,” said Joel Lohr, maintenance specialist with Facilities Operations. “She has been given the nickname ‘Office Mom’ for good reason.”
“She puts everything together, coordinates issues, and has good foresight as to what’s needed,” said Al Pignataro, WSU Spokane security sergeant.
“You never see Sandi in the limelight, because she never advertises when she does great things,” said Dennis Snider, utility worker with Facilities Operations. “They just happen, you don’t know how they happened, but you suspect she had something to do with it.”
When asked how Baldwin felt about receiving the award, she replied “It was such a great honor to receive the award and to share the stage with Gretchen whom I have the fortune of working with on a daily basis. I feel my recognition is due to the responsiveness, work ethic and proficiency of my ‘office kids’ so that made it even more special. I want to thank everyone involved with my nomination and selection of this award.”
As quoted from WSU Today, September 19,2008 edition
