Photo by Marcy Thornsberry

Alex Davidson, Katie Youngen and Stephanny Tauber won awards last week for their stellar performance in campus jobs.

Davidson, who has been working in the Learning Resource Center for three years, won the Student Employee of the Year award.

Davidson works with transfer students and the peer tutoring program.

“I was a transfer student myself, and my transition wasn’t very easy,” he said. “I make sure transfers don’t have to experience that.”

Emily Burke, Davidson’s supervisor and associate director of the LRC, said that she doesn’t have to supervise him in a way that’s intrusive.

“We all value him, and we know we can lean on him,” Burke said.

Tauber, administrative intern and Teaching Fellow for the Butler Community Arts School, won the student employee leadership award.

“I didn’t think I was going to [win this award],” Tauber said. “I’m very thankful, and it’s very humbling.”

Tauber reaches out to young students who are in late middle school or early high school. She said the students are underprivileged and have a lot of questions about college.

Tauber’s supervisor is Karen Thickstun, the director of the Butler Community Arts School.

“She has been a mentor more than anything,” Tauber said.

Last summer, Tauber supported nine BCAS camps.

Thickstun said Tauber handled the administrative aspects with efficiency and excellence.

“[Stephanny] also went the extra mile, like eating lunch with the campers, cheering them on at the final recital and even helping one camper find an instrument to use for the summer,” Thickstun said.

As a teaching fellow, Tauber teaches theater classes to children at the International School and Christel House Academy.

“Both schools speak very highly of Stephanny’s classes and have asked that we continue to offer theater classes,” Thickstun said.

The winner of the Outstanding New Student Employee of the Year award was Youngen.

She is the student helper in the CHASE office.

Youngen said she helps organize the Undergraduate Research Conference, the honors program and the summer institute.

“I’m the only helper in [the CHASE office], and it’s a big office,” she said. “I am appreciated by four different women who coordinate four different areas.”

Youngen said she is happy she won the award but was surprised because she didn’t even know the awards existed.

“It’s good to know people appreciate what I do,” she said.

Other winners were similarly appreciative.

“They’re rewarding me for what I’m benefiting from,” Davidson said.

Tauber said she was offered a promotion and a pay raise after winning the award.

Burke said she is incredibly proud of Davidson, and was not completely surprised with his win.
“We’re lucky to have students doing such high- level work for us,” she said.