Today's Update: Friday, September 9, 2022
September 9, 2022
Fear Student Life team,
Happy High Five Friday!
Lots of High Fives to hand out again this week, including a few from Welcome Week to start us off.
Tonya Dawson, Krystal Vielman, Devon Stith and Jesse Fernandez from the Ohio Union Activities Board (OUAB) team get High Fives for all their terrific work on events throughout Welcome Week, especially the massively successful Buckeye Kick-Off! And High Fives to J. Randall Hicks and Kailee Missler for capturing all the excitement of Buckeye Kick-Off with photos, social media and a really fun time-lapse video.
High Fives to Brooke Olson, Cassie Smith, Jen Pelletier and our Student Organization Success Coaches for their major pivot to move the Student Involvement Fair to a date with sunnier skies and all their efforts to create an amazing environment for thousands of students to get involved.
Many of you helped out at events with the start of the academic year, and a colleague noticed that one person in particular seemed to always be there pitching in. High Five to Tom Reeves for lending a hand to so many different events and initiatives to start the year.
High Five to Disability Services Intermittent Interpreter Ashley Maingi on passing the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) exam.
High Five to Social and Digital Media Coordinator Kailee Missler for dramatically increasing Student Life’s followers, engagement and impressions online. And she produces amazing Instagram reels.
Josh Bodnar and team get High Fives for helping a teacher from Springfield get her BuckID after she arrived just a little after the office closed.
High Five to Troy Keller and Jack Cilles for helping a staff member with a special university clean-up project. She said, “They both went above and beyond for me in this!”
Dining Services wants to be sure I give High Fives to Peter Hansen, Ayeshia Pompey, Gabi Bockelman, Toni Greenslade-Smith, Thyrone Henderson, Ryan Lovell, Tiffany Quattlebaum and Karl Cavin for helping at various Dining operations on the weekend as the department hires and trains student employees. Dining’s Senior Director Zia Ahmed says, “We are very thankful for their commitment to Engage in meaningful ways outside of their regular job responsibilities, Learn a few things about dining operations, and help student and staff Thrive by supporting our team at the front lines.”
High Five to Housing and Residence Education team members, Christy Blessing and Gabi Bockelman for stepping up in a major way by supporting colleagues in need.
Student Health Services is very proud of their Student Assistants in Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine for helping out in other SHS departments when needed. I’m happy to give High Fives to Michael Ching, Swaapnik Choda, Skylar Forsberg, Sophie Janssen, Jasmine Jones, Ricky Pinney, Austin Richey, Yiheng Sun, Christina Tran and Xiwen Xin. I hope someone will share this message with them!
I’ve had fun passing along highlights of how other units have welcomed students back to campus. CFAES Dean Cathann Kress hosted a Back2School Bash for about 1,600 people with food trucks, games, booths for all their clubs and a band. They even had stickers of five iconic CFAES images, such as Waterman, for the students.
Have a Scarlet and Great weekend, and GO BUCKEYES!
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University