IT worker receives student
employee of the year award
Dipal Patel, stunder-worker at Information Systems
and Technology, won this year's student-employee
of the year award.
By Tara Chalmers
Dipal Patel, a senior computer engineering major and Information Systems and Technology worker, has been named student employee of the year.Getting the nomination
Patel was nominated for the honor by Mark Nemeth, his supervisor, based on his reliability, quality of work, initiative, professionalism and overall contribution to the campus.
Patel had mixed feelings about the nomination.
“It was exciting, but I didn’t really care for it that much,” he said. But, Patel is now happy about his accomplishment. “All my supervisors keep telling me to put it on my resume.”
As reward for his accomplishments, he received a $200 book scholarship from the Enrollment Services Division.
“I haven’t claimed it yet,” said Patel, “I have another semester and I’m taking summer classes, so it [book scholarship] will help.”Work experience
Some of Patel’s work at the PC repair shop is done without supervision, proving his reliability and ability to work independently. He also believes he was nominated based upon his everyday responsibilities. “I have a lot of responsibilities in terms of managing the software that we use,” he said. Patel is a resource to other students and IS&T workers because of his four-year experience with the department. “I know most of the ins and outs of IS&T and obstacles to work around,” he said.
After working with the department throughout his undergraduate education, he believes IS&T provides a good service for CSU. “Since we’re not here to make a profit it really helps out the people,” he said, “We get a lot of compliments from people we have serviced in the past saying how we are a good service to the University.”
Patel enjoys meeting new people through his job as well as putting the competition out of business. “I heard from an employee of Geek Squad that we’re stealing their business, so that’s a really good plus,” he said.
Patel will be eligible for honors certification upon graduation. His plans for the future are still undecided. “I’m debating whether to get an engineering job, or go back for my masters at Case or OSU,” he said. The Student employee of the year title will enable him to pursue higher education after graduating from CSU.
Having won Student Employee of the Year honor, Patel will automatically be entered into a regional competition. He will compete with winners from other universities for a shot at an additional title.
This academic year, CSU has employed 1539 hard working students. Thirteen students were nominated from different departments. The nomination process involves identifying admirable characteristics and profiling the student’s accomplishments. A committee then reviews nominations and declares a winner.
Developed to recognize outstanding student employees, the second week of April is set aside each year for National Student Employee Week. Student-employees nationwide are honored at campuses across the country.
Reach this Stater reporter at t.chalmers@csuohio.edu
