In May, Jesse Soileau was named WCC’s 2016 Student Employee of the Year. The Kāne‘ohe resident, who works at the WCC Testing Center, will graduate from UH Mānoa in December with a bachelor’s degree in history with a focus on Asia/Pacific Islands.
His primary duties at the Testing Center include receiving, proctoring and ensuring the safekeeping of exams and placement tests. He was chosen as the winner based on the following five criteria: quality of work, reliability, initiative, professionalism and uniqueness of contribution.
In her nomination essay, Solieau’s supervisor and Testing Center coordinator Ellen Nagaue wrote:
“The Testing Center at WCC proctors about 12,000 exams per year and routinely receives high marks for being a welcoming, comfortable, safe and clean place for students to take exams — all because of workers like Jesse. When students see Jesse on campus, they greet him with ‘Hey, Testing Center guy!’”
Chancellor Douglas Dykstra presented Soileau with a prize of $250 at the WCC Student Employee Appreciation event on May 5 in the Hale Ākoakoa cafeteria. Soileau was also presented with a perpetual plaque with his name engraved, which resides in the WCC Library Learning Commons.
This was the first year that WCC held a campus-wide student employee event and the first time in decades that a Student Employee of the Year was awarded.
The event was co-sponsored by the Chancellor’s Office and ASUH-WCC and co-coordinated by Scott Sutherland, Title III student employee coordinator, and Mariko Kershaw, librarian/Student Employee of the Year award manager. Eighty-four student employees and their supervisors were in attendance at the event, which also featured the musical stylings of students Kapono Lopes, Makana Arce and Rainbow Uliʻi.
Besides Solieau, seven other student employees were nominated. They were Jamie Logan, Service-Learning office; Lopaka Maikui, gallery assistant; Amber Ichinose, student employee mentor/SI mentor; Austin Weihmiller, SI leader for English 100; Rebecca Miyashiro, Speech Lab assistant/SI leader for speech; and Nicole Chun Park, Hawaiian Studies student assistant.
Each nominee was recognized at the appreciation event with a certificate and lei. There are approximately 300 student employees at WCC.
For more information about the Student Employee of the Year Award, visit https://windward.hawaii.edu/seoty/.
by Mariko Kershaw, Speacial to Ka ‘Ohana