Today's Update: Friday, July 11, 2025

July 11, 2025

Dear Student Life team,

Happy High Five Friday. 

The Student Wellness Center’s Brandon Horton gets a High Five for stepping in at the last minute as a presenter for the Get Involved session at Orientation and offering to cover another date that needed coverage as well.  

High Five to Dan Hausman for meeting with several colleagues in a number of departments to help team members understand how to use Maestro, our mass emailing system.   

Marketing’s Debbie Wakefield gets a High Five for her continued partnership with Buckeye Careers. In nominating her, they said, “Debbie not only creates our many and various marketing materials for our university-wide career and internship fair, she is also prompt in responding to our emails and questions and also providing feedback and suggestions.” 

High Fives to Josh Bensink, Matt Couch, Rachel DeMooy, Josh Owen, Adam Specht, Bansari Thakkar and I-Shan Yang for their presentation work with the Office of International Affairs to support new student and family pre-arrival orientation sessions.  

Student Life Disability Services Access Specialist Jenny Speas gets a High Five for her conversations with Ohio State’s Stone Lab campus to ensure a Deaf student taking a weeklong Aquatic Biology class on the island would have complete and total access to all the field experiences offered. Her collaboration with the Stone Lab team, and their combined innovation, allowed the student to have the same opportunities as hearing peers.   

Zach Snyder and Scott Holmes get High Fives for assuring a colleague departing Ohio State resolved their Rec Sports membership.   

I love it when Student Life is recognized as a national leader, so I was very pleased to see an article called “Ramen on the Run” in the latest issue of Campus Dining Today from NACFS, the National Association of College and University Food Services. High Fives to Debbie Wakefield, who wrote the piece, as well as the Res Ex leadership team to include Zia Ahmed and Abby Hertzfeld. The president of NACUFS said, “Your team’s forward-thinking approach is helping shape what’s next for collegiate foodservice. Whether through culinary creativity, innovative spaces or fresh strategies, your work is setting a standard—and inspiring your peers.”  

 Have a Scarlet and Great weekend, and shout it out, Go Bucks!  

Melissa S. Shivers, PhD 
Senior Vice President for Student Life 
The Ohio State University