Office Associate
Department of Sociology
“Joseph has been with the Department for just over 2 years. He deserves to be recognized. Joseph is an organized, proactive, and conscientious hard worker. Not to mention friendly, interested in others and a great person to work with. The Department and UNL are lucky to have him.”
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“Joseph is a fantastic Office Associate. He's always willing to help with tasks and always around to offer a friendly smile and chat. I've worked with him closely on things related to our graduate program and have been impressed with the timeliness and thoroughness with which he completes tasks. It's a pleasure to work with him and he offers a warm welcoming presence to our front office in the Sociology Department. He's very deserving of recognition via the Applause Award!”
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“Joseph has been an integral part of our Department for the last few years. His contributions were invaluable as we weathered the pandemic and tried find the best ways to deliver our classes and to communicate with and support our students. He is always the first person in the office and greets me warmly when I first get there. He helps with whatever tasks are required, and never complains about new and different work we ask of him. When I was the Undergraduate Chair in Sociology, he provided substantial and needed assistance with organization and communication. The Sociology Department would not function nearly as well without him.”
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“Joseph is kind and always available to assist. The center of this department holds because Joseph ensures that everything is where it should be and we never ever feel like we have no help or someone rooting for us. He is generous with his time and will go out of his way to help resolve any dilemma that we might have regardless of the magnitude of that dilemma.”
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“Joseph consistently outperforms his job description and my expectations. He anticipates my needs by asking me before I even think of it questions such as: do you need help finding more classrooms? Would you like a reservation to meet with your graduate students regularly? Can I help you with restarting your computer if you are remote and it is stuck? When I asked him to digitize a book he found a way to minimize "black space", made sure every page was easy to read, linked the files ad saved them in a folder. He could have simply done what I asked, but as usual, he thought about what I needed instead of what I asked for, and gave me that. He is respectful and thoughtful. He will ask questions and always says - "if it is okay for you to answer" - because the more he understands WHY I am asking him for something the more he can figure out what is best to do. He genuinely seems to value what the department does and wants to help the mission. He is lovely with students coming for help and does what he can to assist them (his office is near mine). He is also patient and kind. When I am behind on work for the department (e.g. getting a syllabus to him or doing my ACE report) he offers to help rather than simply chastising. I wish my praise of him was not in part reflecting my own shortcomings, and it is wonderful to have such a helpful person supporting our mission.”
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“Joseph has been extremely kind and welcoming to me since I came to UNL last semester. Whenever I ask him for something, he is always so patient, easygoing, flexible, and reliable. He never seems bothered by the hundreds of questions I ask, and he always comes to my aide right away. Whether it is fixing my computer, printing things for my class, looking for instructional tools, or moving things around my office, Joseph is always so helpful and dependable. He does his job extremely well and he is very responsive to emails. It is so easy to talk with him and he just seems so happy to help. I believe Joseph deserves this award for his stellar work in our department.”
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“I am nominating Joseph because he has gone above and beyond in his front desk duties with the Sociology Department. Over breaks from classes, Joseph remains diligent in the building emailing graduate students, faculty and staff alike with relevant and important information. Joseph has been integral to the smooth functioning of our department since I joined in Fall of 2022. Something that has stood out to me is how aware Joseph is of the struggles of graduate students and so he checks in on us and provides as much support and as many resources as possible.”
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“Joseph makes life easier for everyone in the dept. He goes out of his way to help and often offers to help before you can even ask him! When I email him to book a room for meetings, to drop something off, to pick something up on campus, to leave something in my office, to copy documents, etc. he is so quick to respond. He is highly efficient and takes care of tasks immediately. He is always in a good mood and so willing to help. Knowing that we have someone that is eager to help and does such tasks flawlessly puts our mind at ease as we know that the tasks will be done quickly and correctly. If an issue arises, he will find the answer immediately and help solve the problem. I am thankful that Joseph works in the Sociology Department as he makes our work easier and he is an important member of our Sociology Team! I believe Joseph is highly deserving of the Applause Award and he will continue to do great work for our department!”
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“Joseph is a super resourceful and respectful person who has made days in the Sociology department brighter. He is so kind, and he goes above and beyond for our department. Joseph cares about each graduate student and checks in on us in the hallways and the main office whenever he sees us.”
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“Joseph has been very helpful to me. I found him very friendly and well behaved. When I need any help regarding my office, he helps.”
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“Joseph always goes above and beyond to facilitate department activities, requests, and problem solving. He is such a wonderful presence in our office. Every interaction with him is positive and sometimes really makes my day. He is more than deserving of this award. We are so so thankful to have him.”
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“Joseph just finished his second year working for the department. In that relatively short time, he has made himself pretty much indispensable because 1) he works hard, 2) he anticipates needs and gets out ahead of things, 3) he does the highest quality work (he is more likely to catch my errors than I am to catch his!!), 4) he is growth oriented, always trying to learn and get better, and 5) he is generous and just so pleasant and fun to work with. No matter the task, I know I can count on Joseph to think it through from all angles and do great work. I regularly hear from my faculty how great of a job Joseph is doing (and some of my faculty set high bars!!). He has even made himself available to teach folks from other departments how to work certain administrative systems when their staff were unavailable to help them. Joseph is exactly the kind of staff person we need at UNL. We are lucky to have him and need to do all we can to retain him, including hopefully recognizing him with an applause award.”
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“Joseph has been a fantastic addition to our department! I appreciate so many things about him: He excels at logistics -- both planning and implementation. He was able to make sense of the byzantine ways in which we keep records at the dept and college level -- and introduced a level of transparency and systematic recordkeeping that had long eluded us. He gets the big picture -- thinks holistically about both deadline-driven and ad hoc responsibilities, and not just about whichever sliver is his official responsibility. He is tech-savvy and quickly picks up on news systems, software etc. If anything, we need to find a way to help him say "no" to some of our myriad and undoubtedly unrealistic requests, before he burns out. Kudos like the Applause Award will at least signal to him that we see him and appreciate him!”