Today's Update: Friday, May 16, 2025 (High Five Friday Edition)
May 16, 2025
Dear Student Life team,
Happy High Five Friday.
High Five to Dining’s Rachel Stefancic for planning and leading her department’s Manager Symposium last week. She not only scheduled volunteer events, tours and the agenda for the three days, she also created all the development content that the managers experienced.
A number of Buckeye Careers team members received well-deserved awards at this year's University Career Services Committee (UCSC) Retreat, including Program of the Year: Career Closet Pop-up Shops - Kristen Hill; New to OSU Career Services Award: Paul Newell; Supervisor/ Manager of the Year Award: Jennifer Chilman; Technology Excellence Award: Mollie Workman; and Peer Advisor or Graduate Student of the Year Award: Michelle Norris. High Fives!
Risk and Emergency Management’s Jaylen Lindsey gets a High Five for hosting a Lincoln Tower staff opportunity to participate in chair massages. Thanks for helping make sure the team takes care of themselves, Jaylen.
High Five to Zach Gaskins of Events and Conferences. The kudos comes from Risk and Emergency Managment for Zach’s work planning outdoor events for student organizations, saying, “REM appreciates the speed and care in which he engages with our students and staff.”
Housing and Residence Education (HRE) is showing a lot of love with High Five suggestions for a number of members of their team. High Fives to the HRE hall staff for supporting students in crisis, managing difficult conduct situations and supporting many students in transition as they navigate the stress of the next step. As one supervisor said about the team, “Your time, efforts, dedication and commitment to the student and student staff experience is noticed. Literally, we could not have done it without you showing up every single day. THANK YOU!”
HRE would like High Fives for two RAs at Point on Lane, Dina Bahani and Hawa Sow. These staff members have shown exceptional dedication and commitment as they stepped into unknown territory. Their supervisor is appreciative for their genuine love of being RAs and serving students, saying, “We are honored to have them on our team!”
High Five to Jones Tower Hall Director Shana Parker and four of her RAs for an outstanding job going above and beyond what anyone would expect from their roles. When a community member was in a place of need and not in a position to prepare for the closing of the building, Shana and her staff carefully and diligently spent over two hours packing the student’s belongings, gathering important documents and items and securely storing them until the student was able to retrieve them. Their actions were truly a gift to this student in need.
HRE also wants to High Five members of the Facilities team, specifically mentioning Sonia Romdhane, Tyree Watson and Christopher Shine along with their teams in the North Residential District, saying they, “made this closing and turn to summer housing and conferences the best I have ever seen. The EVS staff worked as a team to meet the quick-paced demand, and they did it with joy. Each day as I interacted with them, I was impressed not only with their motivation for the tasks at hand, but also with the kindness they showed students and families as they moved out, and the humor and comradery they shared with other staff. I don’t even what to hazard a guess at how many mattress toppers and bedding discards the staff hauled out of the building each day, and yet there was never a complaint heard.”
High Fives to Tracy Stuck, Adrienne Gladish, Colleen Lins and Jeff Pelletier for helping an alumni couple update some art pieces at the Ohio Union.
Mohammed Baseer of Student Life Technology Services gets a High Five for assisting Cheryl Lyons of Disability Services with a pressing evening computer access issue.
High Five to Disability Services Access Specialist Jenny Speas for going above and beyond to support multiple students with especially high-level access and advocacy needs before and beyond the end of the term.
Our O-H! What a Celebration was just last week, but the planning committee is already at work on ideas for next year. You can help by completing the Celebration feedback survey. High Fives to J. Randall Hicks and Chris Cade for some last-minute assistance with photography at our Celebration.
Have a Scarlet and Great, and Go Bucks-full, weekend!
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University