Nominees for the 10th annual Service Excellence Celebration gathered Tuesday to honor the University’s most outstanding service commitments this year.
Fifteen winners, including individuals, departments and programs, were selected from more than 600 nominees.
“In all, it was an auspicious pool in terms of quantity and quality, which was fitting for the 10th year of the Service Excellence Celebration,” Andrew Sonn, executive director for administration in Student Academic Support Services, said.
Awards were given out in nine categories: Faculty Choice, Staff Choice, Parent Choice, Student Choice, Alumni Choice, Student Staff, Sustainability, Departmental and Collaboration Awards.
For the first time this year, the selection committee decided to choose more than one winner per category.
Dana Tai Soon Burgess said he was “deeply honored” to receive the Faculty Choice Award.
“It is really wonderful to have my peers’ approval,” Burgess, the chair of the theater and dance department, said.
Joseph Greenberg, a regional admissions director, took home the Alumni Choice Award.
“I won this award because I have an amazing number of GW alums and parents of current and former students that help me year in and year out,” he said.
One of the Student Choice winners, Trina Fletcher, helped found a mentoring program for young girls living in D.C. and travels the country speaking about the importance of education. The engineering graduate student also serves as a board member on the Social Justice Committee for the YWCA of Greater Washington, D.C.
“I’m so excited about people knowing how important it is to give back,” Fletcher said. “Service is the rent that we pay to live on earth,” she said quoting the first black U.S. congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm.
There are two processes to narrow down the large pool of nominees. In the first round, the Service Excellence Celebration planning committee reviews each submitted nomination and chooses candidates that deserve further judging.
In a second round, the Service Excellence Advisory Council works with Presidential Administrative Fellows to score nominees based on learning, communication, community, diversity and respect, excellence, service, sustainability and teamwork.
The full list of winners for 2011 is: Burgess, Katelyn Fleming, Linda Brown, Mary Waring, Florence Claasen de Mourgues, Heather Schoff, Fletcher, Rachel Krausman, Greenberg, Division of Information Technology, GW Solar Thermal Team, Academic Technologies, CCAS Advising, Freshman Day of Service and the Degree Audit Software.
