Annual Awards Bestowed on Student Employees, Supervisors

Winners of this year’s awards: (back row, from left) Miles Avila (CAS’15, SPH’18), Christopher Crivelli (Questrom’17), and Sara Do, FitRec assistant manager of facilities and Pro Shop manager; (front, from left) Caylin Marotta (SPH’17) and Tesla Abrego, Center for Career Development and Educational Resource Center student outreach manager; not pictured is Connor Sheehan (ENG’17). Photo by Alexandra Wimley (COM’17)

BU runs as efficiently as it does thanks in large part to its 10,000-student workforce, responsible for scores of jobs, from troubleshooting IT questions and pesky printers to rolling burritos in the dining halls. On Monday, four of them were celebrated at the annual Student Employee of the Year award ceremony, held at the Castle.

Connor Sheehan (ENG’17) was named Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year, and Miles Avila (CAS’15, SPH’18) the Graduate Student Employee of the Year. Each received $300 and a plaque. Christopher Crivelli (Questrom’17) took home the Undergraduate Outstanding Service Award and Caylin Marotta (SPH’17) the Graduate Outstanding Service Award, which both came with a $100 cash award and a plaque.

Student workers are nominated by their supervisors with a letter of recommendation that highlights the student’s greatest attributes, the ways they have exceeded their job description, and the impact they have had on their department and the larger BU community. The Student Employment office selects the top nominations and a five-person panel of judges from different BU departments chooses the Graduate and Undergraduate Student Employees of the Year, whose names are then submitted to the Northeast Association of Student Employment Administrators to be considered for state, regional, and national awards. The judges also choose the Undergraduate and Graduate Outstanding Service Award winners.

In his role as Admissions recruitment and selection coordinator, Sheehan is tasked with promoting the Admissions Ambassadors program, organizing hundreds of interviews and helping to select new ambassadors, and staffing the Admissions office, where he answers questions from potential students and their families.

The mechanical engineering senior wasn’t aware he had even been nominated for the honor until his supervisor called to tell him he had won the University-wide award. This fall, he will start a full-time consulting job at Accenture. “My job with Admissions has me interacting with families and students, telling them about my personal experience at BU, and that helped me realize I wanted to find a client-facing job once I graduated,” he says. “I love the environment at 233 Bay State [Admissions]. Everyone is superfriendly and such passionate students work there.”

In his nomination letter, Sheehan’s supervisor, Anthony Lamoureux, assistant director of enrollment and student affairs, didn’t hold back. “When he works, he works hard. When he helps, he helps all. When he critiques, he does so with a gentle hand,” Lamoureux wrote. “Without asking, I would find him in the office, headphones in, head down, and running every bit of work he had not finished the day prior… Connor is one of the finest young men I have had the chance to work with.”

Avila is fitness department graduate assistant at the Fitness and Recreation Center, where he is responsible for managing fitness attendants, personal trainers, and group exercise instructors and promoting health and fitness classes and BU employee wellness programs, among other things. Avila says he took a few physical education classes at FitRec as an undergrad, but hadn’t considered working there until a friend suggested it as a graduate student assistantship. He now loves it.

It didn’t take him long to apply his School of Public Health biostatistics expertise to his work at FitRec—he surveyed the facility’s users on their opinions of classes and then presented the findings to the FitRec staff to help justify programming and staff. “The amount of effort that Miles puts into his work is unparalleled,” his supervisor Lindsey Gettinger, FitRec associate manager of fitness, wrote in her recommendation, noting that Avila even became certified to teach group exercise classes so he could teach and substitute when needed. “Miles is the most reliable student that has crossed my path in the four years I have worked at Boston University,” Gettinger wrote.

Crivelli was honored for his work as the young alumni and student programs assistant in Development & Alumni Relations. Marotta is a data entry assistant for the Long Life Family Study based at Boston Medical Center.

Student supervisors were also honored at Monday’s ceremony. Sara Do, FitRec assistant manager of facilities and Pro Shop manager, was named Supervisor of the Year. Also honored was runner-up Tesla Abrego, student outreach manager at the Center for Career Development and the Educational Resource Center.

Do oversees 100 student employees at FitRec, in addition to her responsibilities managing the proshop and helping with the building’s maintenance. Michael Benedykciuk (Questrom’17) nominated Do, saying that when an office became available closer to the student workers, Do chose to move there. He said that it was not because she didn’t trust them, but to get to know them better and ensure that they were on the right track.

“One of my goals is to become a manager at a well-respected company, and Sara’s style of management is to both lead by example while simultaneously getting to know everyone she works with,” Benedykciuk wrote in his nomination letter. “That is precisely the kind of manager I want to be. I want my work ethic to speak for itself, but I want those individuals on my team to know that I care about them. Sara has been a phenomenal role model for me and has been an exceptional example of how to lead and motivate a diverse group of individuals.”

Do says she was surprised to be nominated, even though she had been in the running for Supervisor of the Year last year. “It shows me that the students love to work here, and that’s my favorite part of the job, working with them,” she says. “The fact that they would take the initiative to nominate me—I was flattered and thankful.”

Want to learn how you can nominate a student or a supervisor next year? Find more information here.