14 students honored with CSB, SJU and team employment award

Molly Kluever, Avery Stalboerger and the Student Accessibility Team at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University have been named Student Employees/Team of the Year at CSB and SJU.

The winners, who each receive an engraved plaque, were announced via email April 30.

Some 2,400 student employees at CSB and SJU logged almost 303,500 hours of service through the end of March. That’s the equivalent of about 230 full time employees to complete the number of hours worked in the same time frame.

Those student employees are housed in about 200 departments and offices at CSB and SJU for approximately 300 supervisors.

In order to be eligible for consideration, student employees must have worked a minimum of six months part‐time (or three months full‐time), between June 1, 2019, and May 31 (anticipated).

Individual nominations are evaluated on eight National Association of Colleges and Employers core competencies including oral/written communications, digital technology, critical thinking/problem solving, professionalism/work ethic, global/intercultural fluency, career management, leadership and teamwork/collaboration.

Team nominees are evaluated on how well the team works collaboratively on a common project, service or goal. The selected team needs to exhibit synergy - where the team performs in a way that is greater than the sum of its parts.

CSB Student Employee of the Year

Kluever, a senior English and theology double-major from Malone, Wisconsin, has worked for the CSB Liturgy Team for three years. She was the creator of worship aids for the 6 p.m. Mass, and designs large flyers for liturgical events.

This past summer, Kluever took on the duties of office manager. She is still on the Liturgy Team and working each of the Masses and events, and has created all the office work schedules for the 20 Campus Ministry student employees.

“Molly is stellar at communications,” wrote Sister Sharon Nohner, OSB, director of CSB Campus Ministry in Kluever’s nomination letter. “She is right to the point and from the very beginning of her student employment has been a focused employee who is a real leader in the Liturgy ministry team, as well as a leader in the entire working team.

“Her feedback to other students she mentors into positions is concise and clear, and after working with Molly they are confident and can work independently on their assigned duties,” Nohner said.

“Aaron (Voth, assistant director of CSB Campus Ministry) and I always want Molly as the campus minister who joins us in the information fairs we are at with perspective students. She knows the programs for all four teams and is able to articulate clearly to all she engages in conversations at these fairs. This is very valuable when perspective students need to hear from students on the programs available,” Nohner said. 

Thirteen students were nominated for the CSB Student Employee of the Year.

SJU Student Employee of the Year

Stalboerger, a senior global business leadership major from Eagan, Minnesota, serves as an office assistant in the Financial Aid and Student Employment office.

He assists students in completing required employment forms, answers questions about working on campus, processes all employment forms submitted for SJU students, is responsible for maintaining the student employment job posting website, assists with processing payroll for SJU students and assists the Financial Aid office coordinator. 

“This is the fourth year that Avery worked in our office, and he has always excelled at communication,” said Angie Mareck, director of Student Employment at CSB and SJU who wrote Stalboerger’s nomination form.  “A huge part of Avery's position in the Student Employment and Financial Aid office is communicating with students, supervisors and parents.

“When Avery is working, it is his responsibility to greet and help everyone who comes in the office, answer the student employment phone line and respond to student employment emails.  Many times, students who stop by our office have never worked on campus before and they are very confused about how it all works,” Mareck said.

“Add to that the fact that they are being asked to complete employment forms that don't seem to make sense, and students can be very overwhelmed.  Avery does an amazing job of meeting each student wherever they are at, explaining forms, answering all of their questions, and putting students at ease,” Mareck concluded.

Three students were nominated for the SJU Student Employee of the Year.

CSB/SJU Student Employee Team of the Year

The 12-person Student Accessibility Team has been instrumental in working with students registered with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) through serving as the face of the office.

Team members (listed alphabetically) are Tobi Afuwape, Oyuky Aragon-Flores, Taylor Bekken, Marissa Bernal, Caroline Conrad, Consuelo Contreras, Ethan Fischer, Tom Hawkins, Reid Nydeen, Caitlin Shipp, Allie Sia Su and Jenna Stott.

Their primary roles include answering phone calls, greeting all who walk into the office and replying to various emails as needed. They have attended training in the implementation of Kurzweil, are knowledgeable about book accessibility and spend a great of time scheduling appointments for students. They work as a buffer to the professional staff in the office and do so with the utmost of professionalism.

This position requires a tremendous amount of confidentiality and the ability to think on their feet as there are many unique situations encountered each day.

“This group has a chemistry that emanates excitement and positivity throughout the office,” wrote Jody Kappes, accommodations coordinator of SAS, and Krysten Schwartz, accessibility specialist at SAS, in the team’s nominating letter. “They are positive and their energy is contagious. SAS hired seven new student employees at the beginning of the 2019-20 schoolyear due to the graduation of several seniors last year. Veteran student employees have mentored new employees through the training process and our newest employees are a skilled, bright group that we hope to retain throughout their time at CSB/SJU.”

Nine teams were nominated for the CSB/SJU Student Employee Team of the Year.