"Mary goes above and beyond any administrative support job in productivity, insight, generosity, flexibility, professional and personal integrity, and good cheer."
And that's just one reason why Mary Swinton's colleagues nominated her for the CORE Award.
The CORE Program promotes Nebraska Wesleyan's core values by recognizing and rewarding staff whose efforts and contributions significantly exceed expectations in demonstrating or promoting one or more of the core values.
Swinton, Administrative Assistant to the Humanities Division, was honored with the award during the May staff meeting.
"Her skill and pleasantness are easy to take for granted because they are constants upon which we have all come to rely," said one of her nominators.
Humanies Division faculty and staff also noted these reasons for why Swinton was deserving of the award:
- Excellence at her work should be obvious to even the most casual outside observer. Mary has consistently kept up with new technology, readily shares her expertise with the faculty and, she loves the challenge of figuring out how to do new things that enhance her ability to perform her duties even more effectively.
- Stewardship: Several of our smart classrooms in Old Main were installed at Mary Swinton’s initiative. She collaborated with department chairs in the building to contribute a portion of their budget funds and then consulted with Academic Affairs to make those projects happen very quickly. She is also a leader in encouraging departments to maximize resources by working together, pooling Repair and Replacement funds to buy shared equipment, for example, or grouping supply orders to take advantage of bulk rates. She keeps the Old Main office running efficiently without wasting human or financial resources.
- The work she does supports the liberal arts not only given the nature of working for the departments of English, Philosophy and Religion, Modern Languages, History, and Political Science, but also because she works with her work-study students to help them connect their reading, researching, and problem solving skills in a professional context.
- Personal attention to students: She knows the names of department majors, who come in to drop off papers, and she remembers alumni who stop by to visit. When she hires a student assistant for the office, she becomes employer, advisor, mother and friend, and the students value her guidance and their relationship with her. She is a very positive role model for the students, and has clearly had a significant impact on the lives of many Wesleyan students.
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Do you know someone who deserves the CORE Award? Submit a nomination form to Nancy Cookson at nbc [at] nebrwesleyan.edu (nbc[at]nebrwesleyan[dot]edu).