2025 Winners

Jovany smiling as he hold the Student Employee of the Year Award.

1st Place: Jovany Leyva (COE) Majoring in Secondary Education

Jovany has been an invaluable asset to our team and a standout among his peers. His unwavering dedication, creativity, and positive attitude have made a lasting impact on our office and the students we serve. Jovany consistently goes above and beyond to help students connect with TRIO programs and services. Whether providing directions or personally escorting students to various offices, his attentiveness and genuine care for others shine through. He takes the time to listen to the concerns of everyone he interacts with—students, staff, and coworkers alike—creating a welcoming and supportive environment. To highlight how he goes above and beyond, Jovany greets every student and staff that walks through the door with a smile and remembers key details about them and makes a point to connect with them every time they walk into our office. For example, he knows that a member of the office staff is Hard of Hearing and has learned some sign language. He now takes every opportunity to practice his sign language skills with not only that staff member, but other staff and students as well.

Ryan Bartell holding the runner up award for Student Employee of the Year.

Runner Up and an additional National Student Employee award: Ryan Bartel (CoSE) Majoring in Computer Science

Ryan’s greatest attributes are his diligence, innovative mindset, and passion for automation. His ability to take a conceptual idea, research, and execute are priceless. Ryan has pulled together some of the best elements from our campus software to create an automated system to quickly identify new critical security vulnerabilities. This has greatly enhanced our department’s efficiency and effectiveness. Ryan’s ability to communicate with clarity, research and find solutions, demonstrate seamless collaboration, maintain a humble demeanor, and dedication to improving processes has set a new high standard of excellence for student employees. Ryan’s contributions have had a profound impact on our department and will continue to have an impact on our campus security posture. His ability to learn and integrate multiple campus software products into an automated vulnerability detection system has strengthened our cybersecurity posture, reduced response times and will minimize risks throughout all campus departments. By proactively addressing vulnerabilities, Ryan has enhanced the safety of our campus community and built a more resilient security infrastructure. His efforts have instilled confidence in our department’s ability to better protect critical systems.

Arifa Champa holding the second runner up award for Student Employee of the Year.

Second Runner Up: Arifa Champa (CoSE) Majoring in Engineering

Arifa’s greatest attributes include her motivation, dedication, hard work, punctuality, and her sense of responsibility. These qualities in her distinguish her from other student workers/researchers. While women in computing are rare [13], she is a female international full-time student in computing and a person of color originating from a third world country. While doing research with faculty and doing GTA work for the department, Arifa has been maintaining a 4.0 GPA. She is a key member of a research team as she helps and leads two other members. She has established herself as a role model for a graduate student, particularly a role model for women in computing. One of her publications exposing the lack of female participation in computing was featured in a local news outlet. As a student worker/researcher, Arifa goes above and beyond with her motivation and hard work. She is self-driven, takes initiative, and she investigates research problems by herself to generate new ideas.

Isaac Turner holding the third runner up award for Student Employee of the Year.

Third Runner Up: Isaac Turner (CoSE) Majoring in Computer Science

Isaac has worked with us for less than a year and already proven himself to be a very valuable and independent asset to our team. He always goes above and beyond to make sure our client's IT issues are resolved in a quick and smooth manner. Even when the issue requires a little extra, he is extremely patient with our students and faculty. He shows initiative by pointing out process improvements and takes charge with training when needed. Overall extremely impressed with his performance and the vibes he brings to the team. As a member of our tech team, he is always willing to jump in on any project that he sees needs to be worked on. He’s always active in our team chat, quick to answer questions, and constantly helping out his coworkers. Whether it’s picking up extra shifts, offering support, or just making sure things run smoothly, Isaac is always there when you need him. He’s incredibly reliable, proactive, and a great problem solver, which makes a huge difference in our department.