2020 Service Excellence Award Recipients

“These stakeholders were faced with the wicked problem of attempting to create community and sense of belonging in a virtual landscape. 
 
This cross functional team saw an opportunity to transform Student Life in two ways – provide meaningful opportunities for students to connect in virtual spaces and coordinate the delivery of programming to students through one channel creating greater synergy and collaboration for those that plan events and activities for students. 
 
This was very rare as often our student groups and administrative departments would be offering programs or activities within their mandate, but this really saw campus groups and administrative units work together under the framework of CUx with goals to create a community for Carleton students, to enhance their student experience.” 

“As we work from home, the housing team is on campus everyday continuing to provide safe service in supporting the 1300 students. 
 
They are our cruise ship. A destination on our campus providing meaningful experiences with safety as their first priority 24hr a day 7 days a week.  

 Congregate living and dining spaces are subject to ever-updated Ottawa Public Health & Provincial health guidelines. It is not easy to outfit buildings with proper signage and hand sanitizer in a moment’s notice. But with every change & OPH site visit, the strong COVID processes that have been developed and put in place by the Housing and Residence Life team continue to be a model for all on campus operations. 
 
With all the challenges that this year has brought the Housing and Residence Life Team continues to provide exceptional service to students and are a role model for us all.”

“I could use a great many superlatives to describe the Teaching and Learning Services team and their achievements.  

 Overnight they helped shift the university and its 30,000 students into online and remote teaching. They then supported over 87,000 successful individual winter final exam sessions, prepared instructors to teach in a fully online summer, fall and winter,  

 TLS team members did amazing things under extraordinary circumstances and their impact has been astonishing.” 

“Mike Antunes, our senior electronics technologist has always made a significant difference for all the students taking the physics advanced lab courses, but this past year highlights his great efforts and involvement to the success of the labs. 

This year he single-handedly prepared the home kits, delivered and/or shipped them to students bnd extensive knowledge was instrumental for each student’s success. 

During the lab sessions students were working on many different experiments at the same time and Mike provided help for every experiment and made possible what we first thought would be impossible 

His heavily invested contribution to this task made it possible for our physics labs at Carleton University to stay true to our vision: ‘keep the experiential learning and provide students every tool possible for their success’.”  

“Although I have never met Nadiya Ismaeva in person, she has been incredibly warm and welcoming to me from the very beginning of my employment with the project. Despite being the only person in meetings who was not present in the room in person Nadiya made we feel welcome, included and part of the team. She often solicited my ideas and thoughts on different issues that were being discussed, sometimes despite my lack of direct experience and included me as a fully participating member of the team. 

Nadiya is extremely organized and professional, which is essential when coordinating a large team at multiple universities in Canada as well as partners in more than five countries. She has an incredible ability to take the big dreams and ideas of our team and make them into concrete and achievable plans, working within various financial and other systems to make things happen. ”

“Kwesi showed service excellence through his incredible leadership this summer as Carleton University responded to one of the most important conversations on race of our time. 

Without Kwesi’s dedication and organization, EIC would not have had the opportunity to have the critical conversations about human rights and inclusion with the athletes that were so important to their learning and well-being. Each and every varsity athlete benefitted from Kwesi’s community commitment this fall, and the impact that will have on them is inestimable. Because of Kwesi’s work, and his professional, caring, and responsive attitude, Carleton’s community, well beyond the athletics community, is a kinder, more inclusive place.” 

“Sean cares deeply about the success of Carleton University and its students, by his helpful and enthusiastic approach to problem-solving. 

Sean’s approach includes a genuine desire to understand the details of any challenge and its impact on our business, an excellent sense of priority, and responses that include just the right amount of detail so that everyone can learn from them. His patience truly is a virtue. 

A ‘Hidden Hero’. His face is rarely seen outside of an IT project room, and students will never meet him, but the quality of service he provides has shaped the experiences of faculty, staff and students in the most positive ways.”

“Tanya has helped me grow as a student and person from my days as a nervous first year. I switched to a history major after my first semester at Carleton and was astounded at how welcoming and helpful she was. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an undergraduate administrator before I met her. 

I cannot count the times a younger student has come to me with questions about course selection, program elements, their audit, co-op, etc., and I have sent them to Tanya, beyond confident that they are in the very best of hands and that their questions will be answered fully, and that they are now aware of the invaluable service that Tanya Schwartz provides. It is not an exaggeration to say that she is beloved by the students and is in large part why the History Department at Carleton is such a welcoming community.”

“Kristie has assisted us in reviewing our policies and procedures, obtaining hard to get protective equipment for our staff, and working through our training needs so that our staff can do their job with the confidence to know what they need to do. She has also taken the time to work with us as we addressed unique challenges that COVID has presented, as it relates to our calls for service.  

Kristie truly cares about the team at HCS and actively solicits feedback. When you walk by her office, she always greets you with a welcoming smile. Her positive attitude and willingness to listen helps guides our team towards success. Her desire for excellence and her ability to engage the team has inspired us all to push our team towards service excellence.” 

One nomination for Ria was supported by 4 faculty, 10 grad students, 4 alumni grad students and 4 staff members. 

“The School of Information Technology has grown rapidly and this growth wouldn’t be possible without the extremely supportive work by Ria as our grad admin and her dedication to school and our students. 

If you are a graduate student, you definitely know Ria. She is always there for you when you need help or advice Ria is one that stands out; I could feel her commitment behind the scenes as I see the outcome as a student. Ria’s emails and communication skills helped me settle down despite all the uncertainties I was facing on a personal level.  

Students under stress need someone who can work around the problem and at the same time treat them well and with the deserved respect, but at the same time keep them calm and try and reduce their worries – Ria truly embodies this attitude.”