What began as a “bold idea” in the 2017 Bold Ideas Challenge has now come to fruition in Fresno State’s newest employee recognition program — High Five. Click here to read about how the program began.

High Fives are easy to give — simply go to the High Five website on the Organizational Excellence webpage, click “Give a High Five” and fill out the form to send kudos to anyone on campus. Your message will be delivered straight to their inbox, and recipients will be acknowledged weekly in Campus News.

Read below how your colleagues are going above and beyond to help the campus community.

(Note: Campus News edited comments only for misspellings and missing or incomplete words. They appear mostly as written for each employee.)

Goes Above & Beyond

Felicia Salcido, College of Arts and Humanities
Felicia went above and beyond to ensure our office's transition into using Zoom for our student population went as smooth as possible. She collaborated with other department colleagues to quickly learn and implement as much as possible so our team of academic counselors could best serve our students. Thank you, Felicia!

Marsha Baum, Faculty Affairs
Kudos to Marsha and everyone in Faculty Affairs for all of their efforts handling all of the extra work resulting from the stay at home orders from the governor. She and her office have helped make it possible for department PRC committees to do their work in a timely manner, and her emails have, in general, been exceedingly helpful.

Brian Beamer, Technology Services
During this difficult time of COVID-19 impacting our campus and work routines, our department was going through a huge change. But Brian was there helping transition us online and going virtual. Whether it was extra laptops needed or walking us through new programs to keep us working normal as much as possible. He is a superhero! Our Technology Services employees and teams do not get enough credit for their commitment and hard work. Thank you Brian for being an essential support to us and our departments here on campus.

Boon Mo, Technology Services
Thank you so much for working effortlessly in getting us up and running to work remotely. I appreciate you and all that you have done not just during this time, but all other times as well.

Haile Fitzwater, Craig School of Business
Haile has taken over as our department administrator after Kathryn accepted another role. She is doing a great job juggling her services between Economics, ISDS and the dean's office.

Julie Olson-Buchanan, Craig School of Business
Julie has been handling such an extreme situation for her first semester with calmness, assurance and providing effective communication.

Jessica Medina, Student Cupboard
Jessica Medina, coordinator of the Food Security Project, and her team of students deserve a HUGE High Five for all they're doing to support Fresno State students during COVID-19. They have been working tirelessly to provide food and hygiene products to students in need during this uncertain time. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jessica and your student assistants!

Boon Mo, Technology Services
Thank you Boon for being so PATIENT and kind. You make work so much better.

Nicole Traverso, Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving
As the events of COVID-19 began to rapidly unfold two weeks ago, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel our annual two-day GradFest event, which draws in 2,500-3,000 grads. While this was the prudent decision, it also created a great difficulty in figuring out how to distribute 2,600 Grad Boxes to our grads. Our team developed a number of different scenarios that would ensure social distancing, even coming in on Sunday, March 15 to lay out our plan. Sunday night we received direction that we needed to mail the boxes to all grads. Monday, March 16 me and Nicole developed the projections for the cost and associated logistics to mail 2,600 boxes, ultimately advising that we not proceed with this option. While doing this Nicole also developed a new strategy to safely get Grad Boxes into the hands of our grads. She proposed we implement a "drive thru" model in the parking lot next to the Smittcamp Alumni House.

We quickly developed a formal proposal for university leadership to approve on Tuesday morning. They approved on Tuesday afternoon. We spent the rest of the day on Tuesday fine tuning the model, and developing the associated communications to inform our grads. The model was implemented on Wednesday. We ran our drive thru model from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. Not only did the model work, we were able to effectively use the space we had to open three pick-up stations! By the end of the day on Thursday we had distributed approximately 1,900 Grad Boxes. Nicole's quick and creative thinking helped us provide a bright spot to our grads in an otherwise frustrating period of time.

Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, Provost
Mi Querido Provost! Thank you for your poise and honesty. With these uncertain times your leadership is a lighthouse in troubled waters. You must have an incredible and supportive wife and partner - for every great man is a greater woman beside him. God Bless you and your family. Please keep healthy!

Sarah McDaniel, Library
Despite being new, Sarah jumped into her duties with enthusiasm and an attitude of commitment to excellence. I applaud her for her leadership, communication and detail-orientated approach to working with us (public services division). Thank you for being here!

Marsha Baum, Faculty Affairs
Thank you, Marsha for your consistent and unwavering leadership! I commend you for your commitment to Fresno State's values of fairness and collaboration.

Mehrzad Zarrin, Student Involvement
I want to thank Mehrzad for always being so encouraging and going beyond expectations to help others. I appreciate your sense of humor and positivity.

Claudia Sanchez, Office of Community and Economic Development (OCED)
During these difficult times, Claudia has been going above and beyond to make sure her Connect Initiative staff are safe. Claudia and her staff have been working hard to connect families, students, and educators to low-cost internet services, which has become a necessity during these times. Fresno State OCED is so grateful for all the hard work Claudia has been doing!

Luz Ezquivel, Office of Community and Economic Development (OCED)
During these difficult times, Luz has been going above and beyond to make sure her Connect Initiative staff are safe. Luz and her staff have been working hard to connect families, students, and educators to low-cost internet services, which has become a necessity during these times. Fresno State OCED is so grateful for all the hard work Luz has been doing!

Alejandra Prado, Student Involvement
High Five to Alejandra and her team for working so hard to provide such awesome interactive content for I Heart Fresno State Week in the middle of such a difficult time. It gave the positive energy that was much needed. Great Job!

Sophie Karas, Student Involvement
High five to Sophie and her leadership team for developing such vital and creative content virtually in such a short time and during this difficult time. I am so proud of the work they continue to do for our students, great job!

Harminder Mann, Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships
When the majority of our office staff transitioned to telecommuting, Harminder ensured that all staff had their individual laptops loaded with the appropriate software so business could continue as usual. She was in communication with IT whenever we ran into roadblocks to make sure when we were required to telecommute, we would be ready. She keeps our office organized, and is always responsive when any staff member asks for assistance or needs supplies. She thinks of everything - including cleaning out the staff fridge before starting her own telecommute. We are incredibly lucky to have Harminder as our ASC!

Holly Baum, Technology Services
Holly is a rock star. She has been working overtime this past year on a multitude of projects for students, quite literally "behind the scenes." She worked hard on setting up infrastructure for class cohorting and enrollment, making her projects run with sometimes very little direction. She has also recently fixed a CSU-wide glitch in the registration system that has been making students and staff very anxious. Within one week she fixed this problem, in addition to her normal job duties. Holly is a treasure and deserves all the kudos and high fives!

Tahler Caldera, Jordan College Advising and Career Development Center
Given the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked to adjust our college advising strategy to meet the student's needs and be proactive in reaching out to students to ensure that they were still getting their class advising for the fall 2020 class semester. Her ability to stay organized has helped our center navigate this unique time and allowed us to be successful in assisting our students.

Terence Wan, Jordan College Advising and Career Development Center
Terence is a great colleague who has always been proactive and efficient when working with students, but since we have been charged with working remotely and maintaining our caseloads and the requirements that come with them, he has gone above and beyond to meet the needs of our students to ensure that they are still getting advising that they need and holds removed in a timely manner before registration.

Felicia Salcido, College of Arts and Humanities Advising Center
With the COVID-19 pandemic, advisors were charged with working from home and given relatively short notice to prepare. Felicia went above and beyond in getting their advising center ready to work remotely and efficiently using alternative modes of communication like Zoom. Felicia always goes above and beyond to ensure student success, and this time she made sure that no obstacles would stand in the way regardless of the circumstance.

Katt Mize, Jordan College Advising and Career Development Center
Katt was hired as an emergency/temporary hire in our office. She started the week before we were sent to work remotely due to COVID-19 and has managed to stay on top of her job duties without skipping a beat. She is very diligent in her reviews of student records and ensures that she is giving out the correct information every time. She has shown that she is dedicated to learning everything she can even though she is only going to be with us a short time.

Katherine Mize, Jordan College Advising and Career Development Center
Katherine came to us as a temporary emergency hire right before we began telecommuting and right before our busiest time of the year as advisors as registration was approximately a month a way. In the short time and the extreme circumstances, she has demonstrated a great work ethic, putting in a lot of prep work to learn our system, departments and majors. Her ability to catch on and ask the right questions has prepared her well to assist our students. Feedback from our students during this time have been positive as she is thorough excellent advising.

Carmen Espinosa, Financial Aid
She is one of the hardest working counselor in the Financial Aid department and takes her time while working with students of all backgrounds. She truly understands the students she works with and wants the best for them.

Alondra Martinez, TRIO Student Support Services – Disabilities

Mary Owens, Procurement
Mary went above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.

Kevin Taloza, Procurement
Kevin went above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.

Tom Siechert, Procurement
Tom went above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.

Celia Gonzalez, Procurement
Celia went above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.

Departments
Technology Services
With everything that has happened over the past few weeks. Technology Services has done a great job to adapt, serve, and support not only the students, but the faculty, staff and admin! Thank you to Orlando and all of his team!

KSOEHD Advising Offices
The advisors have been critical these past two weeks. They have gone above and beyond helping our students by telecommuting from their homes. One advisor expressed working beyond hours in order to meet our student's needs. I can't thank them enough.

Student Involvement
I just want say how proud I am of my department for working so hard and patiently through all the many changes we have gone through. This department has been so supportive of each other in various ways, and stay dedicated in their commitment to the students they serve. They have put out such amazing work. I am so very grateful and proud to work with these individuals, thank you for all you do!

Police Department
As essential employees, the Police Department is there — NO QUESTIONS ASKED — providing customer service and protecting our campus community in these trying times.

Provides Excellent Customer Service

Monica Cervantes, Learning Center
Monica Cervantes has provided excellent customer services to our students and student staff during the online transition. Her phone etiquette and Zoom support have provided students with the information they need to be successful in getting support from our online tutoring services. I am thankful for all your hard work and dedication to the Learning Center team and to our students.

Glen Hunt, Technology Services, CHHS
Glen Hunt consistently provides prompt and efficient response to resolving technology-related issues for faculty.

Christy Smith, Social Work Education
Christi consistently provides prompt and efficient response to faculty, staff and students even as she telecommutes in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. I greatly value working with her and appreciate her work ethics.

Jacob Rodriguez, Bulldog Testing Center
The testing center had closed due to Coronavirus but I reached out to Jacob and he went out of his way to make sure I was able to pick up the tests the students had taken before they closed. The students appreciated the fact their tests were able to be graded in a timely matter. Thank you Jacob!

JD Griffin, Technology Services
Emergency phones provide a critical service to the campus community. JD worked diligently today to repair multiple campus emergency phones and get them put back in service. The phones were geographically spread out, and it took some hustle to get them all repaired. In addition, JD is kind and thoughtful in the course of his work, and we appreciate him! Thank you JD, for your commitment to excellence and to Fresno State.

Mary Bennett, Center for Faculty Excellence

Celia Gonzalez, Procurement and Support Services

Modeling Principles of Community

Diana Capps, Henry Madden Library
Diana maintains a calm composure in the office, is always willing to help and provides our library student assistants with a model of balanced kindness and professionalism. Even during rough patches, she is warm, enthusiastic, respectful of others and will pitch in when needed. We feel lucky to have Diana in the library administrative office.

Department
Human Resources
Accountability and collaboration have been key during this crisis, and Human Resources has modeled both of these for the campus. Nobody is under pressure like Human Resources during this very volatile and uncertain time. We appreciate their dedication, diligence and empathy for our community while we navigate this time of crisis.

Saved My Bacon!

Suzanne Shaw, Administrative Services
Sue is staffing an important search on campus, and her knowledge of Qualtrics and Excel are so helpful! Without her quick thinking and technical skills, we would have had a major problem. Thank you Sue!

Christine Simon, Development
Christine, thank you for helping me mail merge the last minute cancellation letters to our faithful legacy donors. I really appreciate your talent and willingness. Many thanks!

Mary Owens, Procurement
Mary saved my bacon by going above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.

Kevin Taloza, Procurement
Kevin saved my bacon by going above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.

Tom Siechert, Procurement
Tom saved my bacon by going above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.

Celia Gonzalez, Procurement
Celia saved my back by going above and beyond to help students in need during the COVID-19 event.