According to an e-mail sent by AC President Dr. Paul Matney, “The Mission of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development is ‘serving, engaging, and inspiring higher education faculty, staff and administrators in education.’”
One of the ways NISOD accomplishes that mission is through annual excellence awards.
Last November, Matney asked faculty members to nominate “any administrator, classified staff or faculty member who has developed a service, activity or program that has positively impacted a broad spectrum of AC students and their educational efforts” for the NISOD Excellence Awards.
Three AC faculty members have been selected by the AC NISOD Excellence Awards Selection Committee and awarded with NISOD Excellence Awards.
The recipients are Janice Easterday, an administrative assistant in the music department; Courtney Milleson, an adviser, student success coordinator and assistant professor in the Advising and Counseling Center; and David White, a Web and communications specialist in College Relations.
Easterday was selected because of her scholarship program for performing arts majors.
According to the selection criteria, Easterday saw the need for a performing arts scholarship, so she created a musical comedy review called “Janice and Friends” to raise money for scholarship funds.
Janice and Friends has raised more than $30,000 for scholarships that are administered through the AC Foundation.
“It’s nice to be recognized for the things you do,” Easterday said. “But the award itself isn’t as important as the opportunity to give the scholarships.
“I was really surprised that I was selected. Shocked, actually.”
Easterday said her approach to life is to make every day count and that every day she gets a chance to bring talented people together and see that their hearts are in the right place.
“I get the best of both worlds. Working at AC is such a reward,” she said. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
Milleson was selected because of her work with the Common Reader program. According to the selection criteria, Milleson “identified and realized an opportunity to engage and challenge students” and developed the plan for a Common Reader program at AC.
Milleson said she wanted students to interact with the campus and that “the Common Reader is a tool to connect with students.
“We need to give students something that’s invasive, something to latch on to, and the Common Reader is win-win.
“It’s nice to be recognized, but it’s the other people who work on this project that should be recognized.
“If you surround yourself with good people, good things tend to happen.”
Milleson said she tries to do a good job every day and that she gains inspiration from a quote from her mother: “A professional is someone who does their best even when they don’t want to.”
White was selected because of his work with the Web and communications. According to the selection criteria, White “goes above and beyond his normal job duties to reach students across Amarillo College by communicating and building relationships through traditional Web activity as well as social media outlets.”
White said he is responsible for maintaining AC’s Web site and the MyAC site but that he saw a need to expand beyond those sites.
White was aware that students communicate through social media, and he knew that AC needed to be communicating through the same outlets as its students.
He said he also teaches classes to staff members so they are better equipped for social media involvement.
As a result, several departments at AC now have Twitter accounts that are used for communication with students.
“It’s cool that AC recognizes people who think outside the box and go beyond what their job duties are,” White said.
“When you’re doing a good job, it’s good to get a pat on the back. “It motivates me to do better.”
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