Faculty/Staff Recognition Dinner 2011

Time flies!

I can't believe that in December of this year, I would have been working at Midwestern University for ten years. It seems like just moments ago I sat around a rountable interviewing with my Director and two soon-to-be colleagues as a nervous, but yet, confident newly minted graduate of Northern Illinois University.

I began as the Communications Assistant for the Office of Communications and within a couple of years, I was given the opportunity of maintaining the newly designed university website. And as the campus grew and colleagues moved on, another challenge was presented to me, managing the special events. And in 2006, I began coordinating many events, but one of my favorites, is the Annual Faculty/Staff Recogintion Dinner. The event honors employees for their years of services for every five years at the University. In addition, the faculty that are receiving promotions also receive recogintion. And finally, the President & CEO, Kathleen H. Goeppinger, Ph.D. awards one member from each, faculty, staff, and alumni as a Littlejohn Award recipient. The Littlejohn Award recipients are outstanding members that have contributed to the excellence and service to the campus community. This year, Dr. Alejandro Mayer, faculty; Nicholas Parise, alumni, and Jim Ciway, staff were the recipients.

And because this year marked my tenth anniversary, I was given the night off from working the event. My colleague from our Glendale, Arizona campus came in to town to run the event, to provide me the luxury of enjoying the night with my fellow honorees and husband, who accompanied me. It was a great night!

Truly enjoy creating a lovely event for all the employees, and I can't wait to continue for another ten more years.