Emily Ackerman (Sargent’25), Graduate Student Employee of the Year (from left); Sophia Gish, Supervisor of the Year; Sydney Huston (CFA’24), Undergraduate Outstanding Service Award winner; and Emelyn Theriault (CGS’22, COM’24), Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year were honored April 17 at the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground.

Accolades

BU Honors Best Student Employees and Supervisor

Half dozen students and staff serving the University lauded at April 17 ceremony

Emily Ackerman (Sargent’25) takes time from her studies to help people in pain. 

As senior rehabilitation aide at Boston University’s Physical Therapy Center, she’s responsible for setting up exercises for patients and making sure they feel supported while a physical therapist is tied up with another patient. “As head aide, I get to grow in my leadership skills by being the contact point for all rehab aides, which helps me towards my goal of managing my own PT clinic one day,” Ackerman says.

Coupled with her front office role at the center—checking in, scheduling, and answering questions from patients—her work has made Ackerman BU’s 2024 Graduate Student Employee of the Year. 

When juggling academics and work, prioritizing one over the other affects her attention to the secondary activity, says Ackerman, who holds other jobs involving yoga or physical therapy. “When you weigh school very highly over [employment] work, schoolwork suffers due to poor time management,” she says. “And when you work too much over schoolwork, you won’t be focused at work and can’t do your job as well.”

Synchronized figure skating in high school taught her about the importance of time management. “It’s important for me to be well-rounded,” she says, “so I can get the most out of important connections BU has helped me to develop.”

The University conferred Ackerman’s award April 17 at a ceremony at the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, where she was honored along with several others. They are: 

Emelyn Theriault (CGS’22, COM’24)
Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year

Theriault works as a career ambassador at the Center for Career Development (CCD), running workshops for students and alumni tailored to their career hopes, from networking and interviewing to résumés. “I also design graphics for digital campus signage and social media posts—Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok—to promote CCD services and resources and increase student engagement,” she says. “This semester, I’m working on a project to redesign the presentations that career ambassadors and other CCD staff use to facilitate workshops.

”I have also been involved with creating content and writing posts for the career ambassador LinkedIn page, which is a great way to connect with the student body and share the work the [program] does with new audiences.”

Talk about multitasking: Theriault completes six different categories of work in just 10 hours each week. Beyond the joy she gets helping others, she says, there’s cross-pollination of skills between her CCD work and her involvement in campus groups. “In my role as copresident of PRLab, BU’s entirely student-run PR agency, the confidence and skills I have gained through my experience as a career ambassador have helped me lead over 150 students in the past year and communicate effectively with nearly 50 clients to manage their expectations and meet their needs.”

Sydney Huston (CFA’24)
Undergraduate Outstanding Service Award

If you’re unfamiliar with BU, Huston’s might be the first face you see when you come to campus initially. She and her coworkers interact with hundreds of people daily at the Admissions Visitors Center, where she is senior student admissions representative for training and scheduling. 

“Even though it may be our thousandth time greeting visitors as they walk in, it is most likely their first time walking in and experiencing BU,” she says. “Keeping the guests’ perspectives in mind keeps my customer service fire alive.” She manages campus visit registrations and answers visitors’ questions by phone, email, or in person. “I work alongside my friend Eugene Viti (COM’25) to make daily schedules for student employees, manage coverage requests, create weekly newsletters, curate monthly meeting presentations, and produce training documents for new student employees.”

Although Huston has to balance work and studies, she says the former leavens the latter: “As I work on my BFA thesis, my days are all art, all the time. The administrative tasks associated with my student leadership position offer a much-needed change of pace. Fortunately, I can also use my design skills to my advantage when creating meeting presentations and newsletters.”

In fact, working at the Visitors Center, she says, has settled her on a career in higher education after graduation next month.

Kris Berg (CAS’22, SPH’27, SSW’27)
Graduate Outstanding Service Award

Berg improves CAS undergrads’ writing as a consultant with the college’s Writing Center, augmenting one-on-ones with students with a workshop for fellow tutors on how to better help neurodivergent students and those with disabilities.

BU’s 2022 Belonging and Culture Survey “found that over 16 percent of BU students, faculty, and staff identified themselves as having one or more disabilities,” Berg says, “with a majority specifying their conditions fell under the umbrella of neurodivergence.” However, the survey found, a larger percentage of BU students, faculty, and staff with one or more disabilities felt uncomfortable with the University’s climate compared to those without disabilities. 

“I believe it’s essential for University leaders and stakeholders to actively and continuously work to improve the climate for neurodivergent and disabled BU community members,” says Berg, who currently works with an initiative to create more sensory-friendly space on campus. Working and volunteering at other places—including Boston Medical Center, the Minnesota-based Little Free Library, and the Pride Center of New Jersey—”I have had to become much more aware of my own personal capacity to prevent burnout. This includes working on time management and setting more realistic and attainable goals for myself.”

Sophia Gish
Student Employee Supervisor of the Year

Gish, senior undergraduate advisor at the Pardee School of Global Studies since June 2022, says she currently counsels about 200 students on “their major and degree progress, course registration, and study abroad, as well as their academic, career, and personal goals.” Her job frequently involves more than academics, as she can be a student’s “first point of contact for anything that is affecting their life inside or outside of the classroom.

“I always take the time to check in with my advisees at the beginning of each appointment and with our student employees at the beginning of their shift. Sometimes there are great things happening in their life, and I get to celebrate with them. At other times, they’re dealing with challenges, and I can serve as a support for them. Getting to know my students allows me to empathize with, and better understand, their experiences so that I can offer guidance and support that aligns with their needs and goals.”

BU offers wonderful, but bewilderingly numerous opportunities—academic, professional, and personal—for students, Gish says, and helping them navigate those opportunities is part of her job. “I emphasize that there is no right path—it all depends on their priorities, values, and goals. When they’re faced with multiple choices, whether it be different courses they’re hoping to take or study abroad programs they want to take advantage of, I try to encourage them to stop and reflect about the trade-offs of different pathways.”

Danielle Cavendish, assistant director of BU’s Community Service Center, was honored as Supervisor of the Year runner-up. 

A panel of staff and faculty representing departments across BU selects the Student Employees of the Year, who each receive $300 and a plaque. A panel of student employees selects the Supervisor of the Year. The University has given the awards since 1989.