Cristin Quealy ’04 recently became both Wesleyan’s Student Worker of the Year and the State of Connecticut’s Student Worker of the Year. Cheryl Hagner at Special Collections and Archives in Olin Library nominated Quealy for the campus award in February. Quealy has worked for Hagner at Special Collections for three years.
“They asked for a long narrative about Cristin’s character, her work ethic, the kind of work she does,” Hagner said. “They selected based on what we wrote.”
The Office of Financial Aid organized the Wesleyan prize, which included a $100 debit card, prizes from local businesses and a trophy.
“I was like, ‘sweet, I got 100 bucks!’” Quealy said.
The state award, organized by the Northeast Association of Student Employee Administrators (NEASEA) gave Quealy a $50 savings bond and a plaque.
“Cheryl just told me in February that she had nominated me for this and I didn’t know what it was,” Quealy said.
Anyone who employs student workers on campus can select one person to nominate. Ann-Hagen said that she nominated Quealy for her exceptional work ethic and extensive knowledge of her job.
“She just has a really good grasp of the big picture and how we fit into it, and also the specifics of how to work in the little picture,” Hagner said. “She knows more about the way our department works than any of our other student workers.”
Quealy said that after working there for three years she can do just about everything for Hagner.
Over last winter break the library switched to a new online cataloguing system, which gave Special Collections and Archives a lot of extra work. Quealy returned to campus three weeks early to work with Hagner on updating the department’s system.
“We configured all the computers and I wrote all the manuals for student workers on how to catalogue things for Special Collections with the new system,” Quealy said.
Hagner emphasized that Quealy was an invaluable help over winter break.
“The transition was a huge change for everybody,” Hagner said. “It required lots of new processes in terms of the way we do things on computers.”
Both Quealy and Hagner agreed that Quealy’s extra time and effort in making that transition was probably a big factor that set her aside from other nominees.
Wesleyan students tend to put in a strong showing in the NEASEA awards.
“This is the fourth year that a student from Wesleyan has won the state,” Quealy said.
Last year, Kristin Fuller ’04 won the State of Connecticut award and the year before Vasilios Hoffman ’02 won.
According to the NEASEA website, their goals are to facilitate communication between student employees, employers and administrators. They also aim to emphasize the importance of student employment in financing higher education, and to promote student employment as a component of higher education.
So far no Wesleyan student has ever won the Regional Award, which chooses among the State winners from Pennsylvania to Maine. Quealy will soon find out if she has won the Regional Award. Regional winners from across the country then go on to be considered for a national award.
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