Four students were selected for the Fall semester awards and received a $500 award for their excellent job performance in the University Libraries.  Library Student Assistant Awards are funded by contributions to the Campus Scholarship Innovation Campaign from the University Libraries’ staff and other donors, with a matching contribution from the Friends of the Libraries.  To date, 413 awards have been distributed totaling over $190,650.

University Libraries’ staff and the Friends of the Libraries Board would like to congratulate this semester’s winners:

Maria Hess is a senior double-majoring in Music Education and Vocal Performance and has been working for the Resource and Delivery Services Department for four years. She uses the skills she’s learned in this major to help at the library, by organizing the music scores (and even teaching us about the detailed ways that music call numbers differ from regular ones). She’s helps us to train our newer student employees here, and after student teaching for high-school kids we knew it was nothing that she couldn’t handle. During the closure she helped work on projects from home for Digital Services, which were also music-related. She’s part of the backbone of this department and we really appreciate all her hard work. If you ever hear lovely singing coming from the area of the Circulation Desk, it’s probably Maria!

Zyanya Menchaca-Howell is a Junior English (Creative Writing) Major who has worked for the Instruction and Research Services Department for two years. The department has relied heavily on Zyanya to assist with staffing the chat service since we went remote in March. Zyanya enthusiastically accepted as many hours as she could get assisting students who were frantically struggling to get their research done remotely. She assists with research questions as well as virtual technology assistance to student, faculty, and staff during the remote portion of our service. Over the last two years, Zyanya has excelled at every task she has been assigned, from creating and editing videos, Photoshop projects, making buttons, and testing website functionality. Most recently, she has offered to assist with the transition of the Educational Resource Center and the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center relocation to the Dunbar Library. Zyanya is a member of the campus Tabletop Club, loves animals and worked in a kennel this summer. Zyanya also enjoys drawing and bullet-journaling. We are extremely lucky to have Zyanya on our team.

Kayla Wright is a senior Social Work major who has worked for the Resource and Delivery Services Department for three years. She is incredibly reliable, knowledgeable, and a hard worker who sets a great example for our newer student employees. This semester she did a great deal of self-directed work from home for Digital Services during the closure. In addition, she has started creative new traditions for the Circulation Desk, such as creating themed media displays to highlight videos and games in our collection. She also makes themed decorations for holidays and other monthly events that we reuse every year to decorate the Circulation Desk to make it a more fun and welcoming place. She is very crafty and is always impressing us with her projects… everything from pretty nails to mermaid tails!

Mark Stickford is a senior Social Science Education major who began working for Special Collections and Archives in January 2020.  Mark has a very strong work ethic which he demonstrated during the COVID shutdown by completing a number of  tasks remotely.  Mark’s work on close captioning videos in CORE Scholar to ensure we are in compliance with ADA laws is a tremendous help to us.  He is involved in a number of groups on campus including serving as president of the Economic Club and the Combo Director of the Wright State Show Choir.  He also helps a local high school band with their performances.