Last Monday in the Chapel Undercroft, a board of 11 faculty and staff members awarded David Dick, a senior, the Calvin Student Employee Of The Year Award. This was Dick’s third nomination for the honor, but the first time he walked away with the title.
When he’s on the clock, Dick works in the Calvin Information Technology (CIT) department on the first floor of the library, but often Dick’s services extend beyond his scheduled hours and outside of his department walls.
“Between classes, even when he’s not scheduled to work, David will check the pending work orders online,” said Virginia Van Andel, the CIT database administrator who oversees Dick’s work. “If he finds [a work order] within his expertise, he FYIs me, picks up the assignment and visits the user in person to provide a solution to the need.”
Campus supervisors nominated Dick, along with seven other student workers, for the Student Employee Of The Year (SEOTY) based on their “extraordinary hard work, dedication and positive attitude,” according to Calvin Jobshop, a program that connects students with on-campus employers.
Senior Josiah Majetich was honored as first runner-up SEOTY for his work with the non-profit School-to-Career Progressions, and Matthew Ramaker was honored with second runner-up for his work in Dining Services.
Dick was chosen not only for his willingness to go the extra mile on a day-to-day basis but also for the quality and sustainability of his work.
“It’s easy for IT people with initiative to create fancy but unsustainable ‘empires’ that dwindle when they are no longer personally controlled,” said Van Andel. “That will not be the case for the areas of David’s responsibility. These are thoroughly integrated into our daily life and transitioned to the care of others on our team.”
One of Dick’s main projects was assisting the college in upgrading ImageNow, a program the registrar, financial aid and many departments use to store documents. Even though he was working part time for Grand Rapids Community College and finishing up his senior year, Dick put in extra time to ensure its success — saving the college time and money.
“Had David not agreed to continue his role, the project would have suffered a several month setback or Calvin might have opted to hire a costly IT consultant to perform the work,” said Van Andel.
This award means as much to Dick as his work means for the college.
“This award means a lot to me. It makes me feel rewarded for all the hard work I have put in for the last few years and it makes me appreciate everything I have learned from my parents and my superiors,” said Dick.
The mutual appreciation is evident. Van Andel believes Dick is one of the best student employees she has ever worked with.
“We employers have all had dedicated students, effective communicators, clever students, nice students, students with energy, productive students with initiative,” said Van Andel, “but in 27 years of working with students at Calvin, I have never had one who so wonderfully combined all these traits month after month for four solid years.”
