Happy Spring! How many ISIRs did you get? I’m kidding, it’s a mess, but that’s not what Spring is all about. In a very short amount of time the MIDWest conference will be here, and we will get to see all of our colleagues and friends from schools not just in Iowa, but from the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

We’ll have great sessions, the return of the golf outing and socials galore, but there is one piece that I want to promote that often becomes an afterthought, and that is our awards presented by Iowa ACAC. As a past recipient of both Admission Professional of the Year nomination and winning the award four years later, it is one of my proudest achievements in the work that I do.

In a time during Covid, where more than a pandemic was hitting me hard, it was a welcome recognition of everything that I did to create access to college for the prospective students, the pride I took in doing my job the right way, and the dedication I gave to my institution and its staff and faculty.

The award itself meant a lot but more than the award, it was that someone who knew me, nominated me, someone saw what I was doing and genuinely cared enough to send in a brief nomination. These awards are so much more than the plaque that hangs on the wall. They are about us as people, what we go through each day and what we do that perhaps goes unnoticed.

As a supervisor there is always only so much we can do. We can’t give raises every day, or give extra vacation, but what we can do is make sure that we let our staff know that they’ve been noticed, and while not every staff member will be a finalist or win each year, showing them that you believed that they were worthy to be nominated can go a long way.

So, my challenge is to everyone, not just supervisors. If you know someone who has poured more of themselves into their work than just the basic 8-5, someone who you feel has gone above and beyond, who is a leader in your office, or out of your office, a school counselor who is always looking out for their students, someone who is juggling life and work and is still coming in everyday to do their best stuff, take 10 min out of your day and nominate them for an award.

At best they win, at worst you’ve spent 10 minutes to reaffirm how awesome someone is you care about and get to make their day by sending your recommendation to them following the conference.

To me, that seems like a positive chance I would take.