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

Marie Tongson-Fernandez, Office of Institutional Effectiveness
Marie's assistance with a survey in Qualtrics this past week was invaluable - she really went out of her way to ensure the survey worked as we needed it to. She persevered with several technical issues and throughout her time helping me, was always pleasant and friendly. Nothing was ever too much trouble. Thank you Marie!!

Nicole Lane, Auxiliary Human Resources & Payroll
Nicole always provides the support, guidance and best advise anyone can ever wish for. She is prompt, respectful, friendly, and knowledgeable and always makes time to answer my emails, calls and questions. Nicole is attentive to the needs and requests that other directors and staff in my area have and provides excellent leadership to her team--she leads by example. Thank you Nicole for everything you and your team do for the staff and students in my area. I'm thankful and grateful and appreciate everything your office does for us!

Mike Nourian, Facilities Management
I would like to thank Mike Nourian for coming by yesterday to help out with my filing cabinet issue. He came right away to help out his team mate. He didn't give up until the cabinet got fixed. Seeing him interact with his co-worker to ensure the best quality from his department, it is an honor to work with such dedicated staff.

Russell Gross, TRIO Student Support Services
Russell is an incredibly detailed and diligent in every project. As I transition to oversee the program's veteran work study program supervisor role, Russell ensures that I am well trained and comfortable with each process. He developed an incredibly thorough step-by-step manual and offers time to walk me through each processing item. Russell is tremendously patient and always make himself available when help is needed. Oftentimes I find him still up in the later evening, past 7 - 8 p.m., still responding to work emails and inquires. Russell is genuinely dedicated to his work and I cannot express how he always goes above and beyond!

Department
Foundation Human Resources

Provides Excellent Customer Service

Monica Valencia, Auxiliary Human Resources & Payroll
Monica provided excellent customer service and assistance to Cal-SOAP so students could receive their materials to participate in the Summer Virtual Program. She was very supportive, helpful and went above and beyond, even though this meant her having to do extra work and sacrificing some of her own time. We are blessed to have individuals like her that value and enjoy their work and helping others! Thank you Monica for your assistance....it meant a lot to us.

Evangelina Morris, Foundation Financial Services
Evangelina always provides excellent service to all the directors and staff in my area. She helps us troubleshoot, provide reports in a matter of minutes, replies to all of our requests and questions, and process the many transactions we send her way, especially during the summer. She is friendly, very professional and always gives us her undivided attention. We appreciate her patience, kindness and eagerness to help and support our work and students. Thanks a million Evangelina for never letting us down.

Racheal Freeman, Facilities Management
I would like to acknowledge Racheal for her amazing customer service, and her unwavering effort to fix my cabinet locks. She was so determined to fix it, she even brought reinforcements to make sure this task was completed successfully. This was the first time I have met Racheal and it has been a pleasure working with her!

Boon Mo, Technology Services
Boon has always been very helpful and respectful to all the staff in my area. He provides great advice and is very knowledgeable and resourceful. He takes the time to listen, assess our needs and provide easy to understand explanations and examples. Boon has been extremely helpful to all the staff and directors in my area and besides delivering excellent service. He has also helped to us make sure staff and students have the technology they needed during these difficult and challenging times. Boon we are thankful for everything you that makes our work easier and more enjoyable.

Fatih Yenen, Technology Services
Fatih has been tasked with many high priority assignments, due in large part to the COVID-19 outbreak. Even in the most stressful situations, he appears to be cool, calm and collected. He is always responsive to the urgent needs of the campus and meets critical challenges with unwavering steadfastness and focused dedication. We are fortunate to have him here.

Saved my Bacon!

Brian Beamer, Technology Services
There were many files that were deleted in error which had years and years worth of data, which would take months and months of research to re-create. These files were deleted and were nowhere to be found. I contacted Brian hoping he would respond the following day since we realized the file was deleted towards the end of the business day. Brain contacted me back within seconds and was kind enough to use team viewer to help me access and retrieve the deleted files. When the files were retrieved he was so patient and allowed me to view each file to make sure they were the correct files. They turned out to not be the correct files and Brain then again worked on retrieving the correct files. Brain was very patient, understanding and calm which made the process less stressful. Thank you Brain you definitely saved my bacon and research time!

Luis Rincon, Student Success Services
Luis was able to guide me and find answers to the many questions I had related with expenditures and processes. He was patient, friendly and always took my calls even late in the evenings. Thanks to his support and knowledge I was able to meet deadlines and avoid wasting precious time! Thanks to his help, I am able to understand things better now and make sense of the daily processes I have inherited. Luis is a great "teacher" and an amazing and caring individual.

Department
Payroll