Five Staff Members Share Helen Shaw ’36 Staff Excellence Award
Established by the Helen Shaw Endowment in January 2003 in honor of Helen D. Shaw ’36, the award recognizes the essential role TCNJ staff members play in the College’s educational process and institutional activities. This year marks the fifth installment of the award, with each of the four recipients taking home a plaque and a monetary award.
President R. Barbara Gitenstein, Gail Deinhardt, and Jason Neely
The 2008 Helen Shaw Staff Excellence and Special Achievement Award this year was shared by one individual and one team, both representing the admissions office.
Established by the Helen Shaw Endowment in January 2003 in honor of Helen D. Shaw ’36, the award recognizes the essential role TCNJ staff members play in the College’s educational process and institutional activities. This year marks the fifth installment of the award, with each recipient taking home a plaque and a monetary award.
The winners this year are Gail Deinhardt, and the out-of-state recruitment team: Matt Middleton, Kevin Fay, Rebecca Breese, and Christine Kucha.
“As we have come to expect, the caliber of nominations received this year was outstanding,” said Jason Neely, community standards coordinator in the Division of Student Affairs, and convener of the Helen Shaw committee at the awards reception on August 19 in Paul Loser Hall.
Deinhardt, office support for the Office of Admissions, was recognized for her meticulous attention to detail while almost single-handedly processing nearly 10,000 undergraduate applications and for fostering and maintaining the ever-important relationships with personnel in key departments to ensure each student’s application was properly reviewed and completed. She was also recognized as the “den mother” for new and veteran admissions counselors, and for being “the glue” that keeps the office together.
At the start of the 2007–08 academic year, the out-of-state admissions team set a bold over-the-top personal goal of 1,000 out-of-state applications and 100 enrollments for the class of 2012. Through new IT initiatives such as a TCNJ Value Calculator and instant-messaging to provide immediate answers to admissions questions, out-of-state prospective students were able to easily see the benefits of attending the College. Through sheer determination to do more—with no additional funding—the team ingeniously revamped the out-of-state scholarship application process which resulted in an over 200 percent increase of enrolled out-of-state scholarship recipients—from 31 to 71. The team surpassed their goal by 46 applications and 5 enrollments.
Posted on August 20, 2008
