Welcome to Staff Appreciation Day!
Thank you for your hard work to make NCU a place for students, faculty, and staff to learn, grow, and thrive! Congratulations NCU Staff for a wonderful year. We hope you enjoy today as a thank you for all that you do to make NCU succeed.
This booklet contains just a few of the achievements made by NCU staff this year. Be sure to read through and congratulate each other on a job well done!
Staff Development Committee
Brandon Watson | David Duxbury | Emma Rodriguez | Jimmy Aicardi Jr.
Gina Zarletti | Rachelle Waldon | ShaeLynn Erickson | Texas Leng
10:00am: Check-In
10:00am-11:45am: Bowling & Mingle
11:45am: Lunch Served
12:30pm: Awards
2:00pm: Head Home
Department & Individual Celebrations
Academic Partners
• Held a hugely successful Academic Partner Summit this spring with participation from nearly all partners
• Partner Stats:
o 21 current active Academic Partners; up from 14 previously (but of those, only six were active)
o 11 Prospective Partners in the sales funnel
o 24 additional being prospected (cold-called)
Admissions
• Both Fall and Spring Terms had year-over-year growth
• Spring and Fall NCU Days were our most populated events since COVID (86% increase in attendance year over year)
• Every Admissions staff member is in a new role compared to last year
• Nick Leist & Adam Hill bought houses
• Our team attended over 100 in-person recruitment events since August
• Ben Jacobs married his wife Madelynn in June 2022
• Caleb Taylor graduated with his BA from NCU last week!
• Taylor Burgraff welcomed his new baby Olivia on April 1st
Advancement
• Set a record at the 55th annual Partners for Progress Gala with over $668,000 raised in cash and pledges
• December 2022 realized 18% more year-end gifts than December 2021
• January 2023: Welcomed Alicia Wolbert to the team!
• Established the following scholarships with generous contributions from donors:
o Jim Connor Education Scholarship to invest in the next generation of teachers and educators
o Dr. James Allen Memorial Scholarship to honor longtime NCU faculty member
o The William Kassis Arab World Scholarship to generously support students going to Arab speaking nations
o The Kerr Memorial Scholarship to invest in students doing ministry in nursing homes
o The AGWM Grant Pennington Scholarship is expanded through generous support by David and Beth Grant to missionary kids attending North Central
• Raised nearly $60,000 for Give Day to renovate the Miller Hall skyway
• Science lab donation of $500,000
• Just shy of the 2023 goal of $2 million
• Faith Ooms helped lead volleyball to their single-highest win total in program history. Additionally, her team also finished with the highest GPA in the entire UMAC!
• Paul Theorin pushed track and field to their highest point totals in program history for both the men and women. Paul also was a phenomenal leader in helping to secure and implement fundraising efforts through BEST Security.
• Greg Sweeney has helped to turn around our entire golf program in one year. Perhaps the greatest compliment that could be given was when a women's golfer stated that this was the first time that she has felt fully supported as a golf student-athlete.
• Colette Montgomery and Rodrigo De Mendoza took on a new structure for soccer leadership this season that continues to help build on the culture of our department. Both Colette and Rodrigo are loved by the student-athletes that they coach and their fellow coaches.
• Jeremy Becker might have been the youngest head basketball coach in the NCAA Division III ranks, but he showed maturity beyond years in helping to shape a culture of gratitude amongst his student-athletes.
• Leah Szabla came into her first year at NCU following up on the single best women's basketball season that NCU had ever experienced while returning hardly any student-athletes from the previous year. This may have been daunting to some, but Leah was able to bring in a stable of recruits that helped lead the Rams to one win away from making the NCAA tournament for a second year in a row.
• Matt Haefner is the epitome of having a positive attitude in the midst of a storm. Matt solidified his position in our department as a coach that brings a calming presence into all that he does. His student-athletes love him, and we are so excited to see where he leads our softball team in the years ahead.
• Devin Lehnhoff and Matt Farland ushered a new culture to the NCU baseball team. The men that they led may not have achieved the winning percentage that they would have liked, but Devin and Matt are beloved by their student-athletes and have the buy-in from their team that will lead them to success.
• Konnor Jusczak stepped into leadership this spring with athletic communications and immediately made his presence felt. He is a phenomenal teammate, and we are confident that under his leadership, we are heading in the right direction for athletic communications.
Digital Education
• Held over 180 student appointments for online undergrad (new and current) and PSEO students who wanted to create a schedule for the Spring 2023 semester
• Created the first PSEO student-led committee: PSEO Council to lead PSEO chapels and events
• Participated in the first Summit Conference for our Academic Partners and presented our developed practice of Academic Coaching
• Shout out to Monica Aicardi for jumping into the director role in digital education to bring us fantastic student care through exceptional online academic coaching and new programming. She is a ‘sense-maker’ because she brings clarity to confusion, which serves everyone around her. Her ability to lean into the tension of the unknown with intelligence and a smile is like no other.
• Shout out to Dan Erickson who, in addition to assisting with online academic coaching, led our PSEO students through a very successful year. His deep inquisitiveness has assisted him in
quickly grasping what is and what could be with our PSEO program. Our students and parents deeply love and value him!
• Shout out to Aimee Robertson who wears many, many hats at the university including executive director to prospect, partner with, and support all of our academic partners across the US. She has simply turned around this initiative through her exceptional customer care that is rooted in quality communication, a consistent positive attitude, and institutional knowledge.
Facilities Maintenance
• Maintenance requests completed: approx. 1,350 in the past year
• A few projects completed: TJ Jones 2nd floor, repainted MH 2nd floor hallway, eSports remodel, etc.
• On top of this, we also keep the buildings heated and cooled all year round, update doors and lock systems, inspect and repair roofs, and keep electrical and plumbing operating correctly. We take care of everything outside as well: mowing lawns, trash pick-up, and all snow removal for entrances, sidewalks, and parking lots.
Housekeeping & Events
• Helped facilitate 2286 events on campus
o 2,112 Internal Events
o 174 External Events
• The external events team increased our revenue to set a new record for the university
• Rolled out cleaning stations across campus for Faculty and Staff
• Ashley Hershberger is the backbone of the department, helping to keep everything moving and improve what we do. She continues to improve internal events and communicates throughout the university to make sure people know what is happening and get what they need. In addition to managing all of our internal events, Ash provides amazing support to all of our full-time staff with all of the additional tasks our department handles. The department could not function without her leadership.
• Megan Palmer has been instrumental in the revamp and reorganization of external events. It is through her efforts that we are seeing record numbers and developing in a sustainable way that will continue to raise the bar. Megan has grown tremendously this year in customer relations working with larger clients. Megan and her husband Brian welcomed their first child Malachi in September!
• Tanner Nys has done amazing work this year managing all of our weekday employees. He continues to lead our students with excellence and helps develop our programming for them. Tanner also assists with all the random projects that our department handles. He has done a phenomenal job balancing those tasks while supporting our team.
• Joshua Gryskiewicz had done great as our weekend supervisor and has been a tremendous help in managing all of our equipment. In addition to the 20 vacuums and various heavy machinery for the department, Josh also manages all the dorm vacuums, cleaning stations, and the equipment of several other departments on campus. He has been invaluable in helping us keep track of all of our stuff!
• Bam Garner has been a great addition to the department. He has helped Megan grow our external events to new levels. He has created new partnerships and relationships with our vendors, internal events, and some larger clients. We could not have accomplished all we have this year without his support.
Instructional Design
• Melissa Gear, Sandra Pinick, Lon Flippo, and Kalie Michel: They led the university in one of its largest initiatives – the transition to Canvas!
Just for Spring 2023, they created:
• 181 Residential Courses
• 42 Online Courses
• 1,150 Quizzes and 10,000 Questions
• 227 Rubrics
• 924 Videos
• And 729 Individual Syllabus
This all in addition to coordinating a massive amount of information between stakeholders, including: Tutor.com, Ask the Librarian, Cengage, Hawkes, Turnitin, and more!
• A very, very special shout out goes to Melissa Gear for her tireless effort to serve the university way beyond what any mere mortal could accomplish. She consistently led with profound grace, professionalism, and wisdom.
• Shout out to Sandra for her outstanding contributions, thoroughness, and dedication to Instructional Design!
• Shout out to Monica for her hard work, dedication to online students, and collaboration with Instructional Design – very much appreciated " $
• Shout out to IT for their collaboration with Instructional Design in assisting with all aspects of Canvas rollout and the challenges associated with making it happen!
• Shout out to Alaine for her dedication and collaboration with Instructional Design, and for making things happen for Graduate Programs!
• Shout out to Bill Tibbetts for supporting Instructional Design during the Canvas transition and ongoing campaign to provide the best student and faculty online and campus experience
Marketing and Communications
• MarComm (in partnership with other departments) has executed lots of event materials and media coverage over the past year, like Homecoming, Partners for Progress, Next Gen Innovation Summit, Commencement, etc.
• MarComm has handled lots of random projects like designing the National Fine Arts booth, getting all new employee headshots, building a new video studio, executing the Presidential Transition comm plan, redoing all of the major pages on the website, and so much more!
• Chloe has rebranded so many projects this year like all the Admissions material, NCU Days, the NCU Magazine - Table | Salt, Songs of the Season, and many more!
• Noah and Jack both revamped some projects like the new Admissions Instagram account (Go follow @NCUAdmissions_MN), and the Admissions Comm flows.
• Matt made alllll the beautiful videos you’ve seen, including handling the huge undertaking of the Worship Live recordings, and President Hagan’s farewell video!
• Per usual, ShaeLynn kept the MarComm team in line! Her endless task of managing dozens, if not hundreds of projects at a time is invaluable!
Media Services
• We have completed the installation of our audio console and snake system, replacing old systems that were both failing and no longer met our needs. Our new console and snake system consists of a fiber loop with interconnected consoles and snakes, providing increased capability in our spaces along with our ability to live stream events. The system has already been put to work serving internal and external constituents regularly throughout the past year.
• With the help of FM, we moved and set up our streaming room into WWC 206, which now serves as the Media Services Audio Suite for streaming events
• We supported many internal events including the following: Summer Orientation Days, Preview Days, Admissions booth for the AG National Fine Arts Festival, Fall and Spring Residence Life training, PSEO Orientations, Fall and Spring Student Leadership Training along with their monthly meetings, Fall and Spring Welcome Week events and sessions, NCU Block Party, Praise Gathering, NCU's Got Talent, Pastor's Lunch, FYE classes, Worship Live classes, Senior Projects and Recitals, Render, Board of Regents Meetings, Partner's for Progress, Next Gen Innovation Summit, Fall and Spring Theatre Productions, Fall and Spring NCU Days events, Songs of the Season productions, the Activation Conference, the Worship Live Recording, Act Six events, Academic Partners Conference, Mosaic Choral Concert, Global Studies TED Talks, COBAT Marketing Presentations, the Phillips Stage, and many student events, staff events, faculty events, daily chapel, and other events and needs on campus.
• We also supported many external events including the following: the Nicky Cruz Crusade, EPNI Board Meetings, the History of Gospel Music Musical production, MN AG Fine Arts Festival, and others
OneStop/Registrar/Student Financial Services
• Successfully created a OneStop Student Services Office! This office has been an amazing, accessible, knowledgeable resource to our students, staff, and faculty this year. We have seen a culture around service be able to impact many areas of university life due to this collaboration between the Registrars, Student Financial Services, and retention.
• The Student Financial Services team successfully rebuilt the financial aid portion of Colleague for greater accessibility and higher functionality
• Streamlined the acceptance-to-registration process through thoughtful process mapping, more efficient best practices, and technology improvements. These adjustments in our recruitment cycle allow our students to engage more effectively and improve our new student yield.
• The Student Financial Services team restructure is working to get offer letters and service out to students faster than ever before. Our new team members May Brisco and Kelia Thao are doing an incredible job!
• Electronic submission of verification documents has been deployed in Student Financial Services, making both the student and the back-end processing the smoothest in NCU History
• Thanks to the amazing work of our brand-new Academic Success team, 100% of the fall provisionally admitted students returned to the spring semester. The leadership of Sharon Kuntz and support from Jill Trites is unmatched! Their exceptional service to our population on the fringes has had an immediate impact.
• Our Spring-to-Fall 2022 retention rate was at an all-time NCU record high at 88%. This is due to a whole university approach to student service and experience. Special shout out to the OneStop, especially Weston Cregut, for initiating and supporting many registration-related initiatives.
• The Registrar’s Office launched a brand-new online transfer software, DegreeSight. Sarah Russ put in a lion’s share of data in order to help prospective students interested in transferring to NCU know how our special university can meet their needs. DegreeSight will provide students with more information, earlier, in order to choose NCU! Congrats!
• This past year NCU launched additional Fall Check-Ins for specific students, offering them a personalized Welcome or a Welcome Back!
• Successful launch of our MN Tuition Guarantee Scholarship! Through this program, we can offer our high-achieving, high-need students a full-tuition guarantee for 4-years. The program was so successful we are continuing with it for Fall 23!
• The new E-Sports Scholarship allowed us to enhance our recruitment experience and target students participating in this exciting new athletic opportunity
• Amber Madrinich was promoted to the Associate Director of Student Financial Services –recognized for her amazing expertise and contributions within our department. Her leadership and knowledge are valuable and highly appreciated!
Office of Technology and Innovation
• Just under 1500 total IT tickets were resolved this year
o If you are curious, a total of 7416 have been created in TDX this year (across all departments that use TDX for ticketing)
o Networking tickets are down 42% from last year (last year was already down 65% from the previous year). They are down 78% from FY2020 (the year we kicked off our strategic network rebuild)
• Amazing work is being done by Andrew and Patrik with the ongoing implementation of Salesforce Student Success Hub and the new user experience portal
o Additionally leveraging Salesforce for automation and workflow for all areas of the university
• Amazing work by Carl, Komla, and Texas on the phone system and Teams transition
• Amazing work by the team on the eSports Arena PCs
• New CLC/Chicago Hall fiber and new switching for CLC
Operations
• Facilities Management: Jimmy Aicardi was named Associate Director upon Jordan Hurst moving on from NCU and has been exemplary in his leadership of the department. Taylor Amiot has been elevated into leadership over student workers in addition to his locksmith and entries work. He is doing a fantastic job starting off summer! Jon Nitsh joined the team as Jacob Grant
moved on from NCU and has been a Swiss Army Knife for the department, preforming great work on systems and buildings across the university. The team has remained amazingly agile and creative to find effective solutions to problems and even found time to be creative. For example, look to the eSports Arena in Chicago Hall.
• Housekeeping &Events: Brandon and Ashley have been vitally important to ensuring the workings of the university remain in action and operate smoothly with one another. The Facility Events team of Megan Palmer and Bam Garner have done outstanding work to raise revenue significantly. External event rentals is now an important and dependable piece of the university budget and looks to increase into the future. Tanner has been an outstanding night manager and Josh Gryskiewicz has taken on weekend and repair duties with great efficacy.
• Security: Mike and team have made a lasting impact on Elliot Park. NCU’s neighbors look to the team for safety and security needs, and local ne’er do wells know our campus is not to be trifled with. The team apprehended 3 Kia Boyz this year and thwarted the last 4 attempts at car thefts. Hennepin Health’s security team has formed a work group with Mike Woods to share in tactics training and communication protocols for shared safety oversight of the neighborhood. Way to go guys!
• Media Services: Chris is a machine, overseeing sound and lighting for every chapel service while also managing an entire college fine arts program. He, Parker, and Kedric have raised the bar for quality in the Lindquist Sanctuary with the addition of new sound boards installed last year. The team is working with Housekeeping & Events on growing the number of events in the Word and Worship Center as well as promotion of the Recording Studio for revenue generation.
• CAMS: Dylan Crowson was an exemplary student manager, working to update pricing, inventory, and student job training. CAMS is still a work in progress, but the students have a great rapport and family atmosphere there. It’s been a treat managing each of them.
Security
• Josh: Josh took an arrow to the knee both literally and figuratively. Went on to have three Muay Thai fights and won a spot to go to Portugal in the fall for team USA, This of course mean he is abandoning Mike and Brody for the trip to Slovenia but they will allow it this time. He’ll watch your dog for free, not really an accomplishment but he made me say it. This will also be his 5th year working at NCU.
• Brody: was Just hired on as a replacement for Joe Kornbaum and is currently debating shaving down his beard into mutton chops while eating the remainder of the deer he shot. He’s pretty upset at being turned away from the theatre for the new Sisu movie, but he’s Finnish so it’s to be expected. He just moved to Bloomington and oh, he spent a night in the northern wilderness surrounded by wolves. Also, just bought a jar of claw berry jam from IKEA.
• PJ: Just got married and has turned a new leaf from avid shoe collector to avid firearms collector with poor taste. His new bride doesn’t approve, well maybe she does….no she doesn’t. In any case his work wife Brody kinda does approve but doesn’t appreciate his taste in communistic weaponry. PJ has managed to haze at least 2/3 of the student officers. Also scared off a vehicle full of KIA boys with the power of Hot Cheeto sauce. Has kept what’s left of the decaying van remains alive and running.
• Rebekah: Completed her reserve training. Went on to impersonate a polar bear but in doing so broke the woman’s 100-meter dash record, will try again next year with the rest of the team. She has had numerous run-ins with evildoers and was rated the most intimidating of all the officers by student and miscreant alike. Has trained just about every officer in the department. She is also on a personal mission from God to drink Minnesota’s supply of boba tea.
• Josiah: Currently working through the Marvel universe in chronological order. Is a Parking Mastermind, completely reconstructing our parking database. Beat his own PR at bowling with his first ever turkey finishing at 168. He choked on the tenth frame and is looking to beat that today. He’s since moved off campus and now resides in an “upper class” apartment where he can look down on all the peasants at the stone arch bridge. Has been in the process of starting his own online business doing gaming electronics that will quote “blow your mind”.
• As for the rest of the department. We’ve been steady hooking and jabbing. In one month, we captured around $1400 worth of Fentanyl. Caught 2 KIA boys and 1 KIA gal. Security has responded to over 214 incidents last month. This is on top of completing their everyday task of ticketing, unlocking/locking doors, and general patrols. There is no greater team and I’m proud of every single one of them.
Student Life
• NCU’s Counseling really took off this year under the direction of Stacy Hepburn working with Steph Farenik. After reaching a max need of 100 students on a waitlist in the early fall, new strategies for assessing, triaging, and referring students allowed the waitlist to shrink to 13 by the end of the semester. These two leaders have been innovative and creative, and they have activated new ideas to support and love students through the challenging times of their lives.
• Chris Woelfle, Karina Garcia-Kornbaum, Lacey Simmons, and GA Judah Sitcler led a new version of the residence life team. These incredible people manage so many challenging moments with our students including emergencies, mental health concerns, significant behavioral conduct, roommate concerns, and many, many others. NCU is fortunate to have these individuals working with our students.
• In Student Engagement, Gina Zarletti and GA Tyler Johnsen managed a variety of initiatives designed to increase belonging and create connection to NCU for our students. Mentoring and discipling student leaders through cornerstone events like Battle of the Floors or new organizations like Women in the Marketplace, Gina and Tyler are committed to teaching and facilitating leadership with our student leaders.
• Nathan Droege is a bedrock foundation for Student Development. Each year, Nathan makes it his personal mission to provide an incredibly healthy and positive housing environment for each of our students. He manages parent concerns, student challenges, and departmental pressures with extraordinary grace. We are grateful for his presence and helpful attitude in our office
T.J. Jones Library
• Library Team:
• Moved approximately 30,000 books (multiple times) before putting the finishing touches on an incredible renovation of the second floor
• Hosted two trivia nights, one of which shattered programming attendance records
• Provided access to approximately 22% of all required textbooks as eBooks
• Circulated over 7,830 physical items and 12,600 eBooks during the academic year
• Invited to present at three librarianship conferences
• Designed and launched a beautiful new website
Madisson Coleman:
• Developed new policies and implemented procedures that drastically improved our studentemployee productivity and team morale
• Oversaw thousands of interlibrary loan requests and managed partnerships with our internal and external library partners
Shua Peterson:
• Conducted over 50 research consultations during his first year of reference & instruction
• Single-handedly organized Momentum Week, initiated new partnerships for programming, and executed several successful events to serve students during finals week in the Fall and Spring
Staff Award Descriptions
Consistent Quality- For any employee for their ongoing commitment to quality craftsmanship and the highest standard of work ethic.
Constant Communicator- For any employee for their clear, consistent, and ongoing communication with the NCU Community: Students, staff, and/or faculty.
Culture Creator- For any employee for their ongoing positive contributions to the overall tone and culture of the NCU Community.
Secret Servant- For any employee for their tireless unseen commitment to the quality, integrity, and consistency of NCU.
Staff of the Year- For an employee that goes above and beyond in their job description, relates crossdepartmentally, performs well on a consistent basis, and supports the mission and visions of North Central University.
Previous Award Winners 2022
Consistent Quality- Ashley Hershberger, Housekeeping & Events
Constant Communicator- Emma Rodriguez, Admissions
Culture Creator- Jonathan Thomas, Spiritual Life
Secret Servant- Sharon Decker-Kuntz, Online Studies
Staff of the Year- Erica Hanson-Hobbs, Marketing & Communications
NCU is a great place because it is made up of great people!
