Today's Update: Friday, April 14, 2023
April 14, 2023
Dear Student Life team,
Happy High Five Friday!
I’ll start with a big High Five to Ryan Lovell for receiving the prestigious Distinguished Staff Award, the highest award a staff member can receive. The honor goes to team members for their outstanding achievements, service, leadership and dedication to Ohio State, as well as their demonstration of the university’s shared values. Congratulations, Ryan!
I could probably include this each week: High Fives to all our executive and administrative assistants throughout Student Life. I know my days would look much different – and much less organized! – without Stacy Smith.
Everyone who signed up to be a mentor or mentee in our Student Life mentoring program gets a High Five. You still have time to become a part of the program by going to the intranet page on the Student Life website. High Five as well to Stephanie Franks for her leadership on the program.
High Fives to everyone who is helping to celebrate our upcoming graduates and their accomplishments, including the Greek Awards, Leadership and Senior awards and all the graduation celebrations put on by the Center for Belonging and Social Change. I’m getting ready to go to the Leadership Awards in just a few minutes, and after that the Senior Dinner. I can’t wait to hear all about these remarkable students.
High Five to Michelle Miranda, Charity Martin-King and the Social Change Ambassadors for helping to facilitate programming and a tour for 35 fifth graders from the United Schools Network during their visit to campus last week. The scholars enjoyed their time, learned a lot and some described it as “the best day of my life.”
Angela Britton and Natalie Tedrow get High Fives for their help in getting an issue with a very large pre-paid BuckID order solved the day before an event.
High Five to Erica Regan and Chrisse Edmunds for anticipating some of our data needs in Student Life and proactively collecting and sharing information.
Aaron Moore gets a High Five for his amazing presentation skills and for making sometimes complex topics really easy to understand and fun to learn about.
High Five to the Student Advocacy and Parent and Family Relations teams for the important work they do to support Buckeyes and their families, including this week’s touching, yet very difficult, Student Remembrance Ceremony.
High Fives to Josh Bodnar, Anne McDaniel, Stacey Renker and Andre Love for planning the FOCUS Team retreat this week. And a big thank you to Candyce Williams for all her help with logistics for the day.
A High Five goes to Dave Isaacs for pitching in throughout this week while other team members were on vacation and out sick. Dave did a fantastic job keeping all the plates spinning during an extraordinarily busy time!
Finally, it’s always rewarding to hear how our work makes a direct impact on the lives of our students. Taylor Koon of Buckeye Careers gets a High Five helping a student with their resume and cover letter. Most excitingly, that student reported that the newly revised documents helped her land a job within the university. Go Buckeyes!
Have a Scarlet and Great weekend, and enjoy the Spring Game if you are going or watching from home, like me!
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University