Department: Finance
Leslie has always been a source of positive "you can do this" attitude. I have learned how to go about new and challenging roles by watching Leslie treat her challenges as a "study". I have seen her cover all angles of something she is not familiar with, and treating it as a course. I have noticed that she also goes in with a respect to the task (no matter how big or small), and she delivers nothing but the best results. She learns and acts with grace and professionalism and is a joy to work with.
It's so difficult to send the Kudos to one or a few Classified since we need you all in order to do our day-to-day job, serving our students. I want to express my sincere thanks to all of you and wish you all the best, always.
With much appreciation.
Department: Records
While I have been working from home, Elena and Loretta have been helping me and our students with printing and mailing out hard copies of transcripts. These two already have a very large workload but have been always available to help and I can't thank them enough! They are the best!
Department: Instructional Technology
Thank you Donna for your time and effort in revising all of the pages for the WVC Online website over the past year! Because of you, we now have a clean and user-friendly resource for WVC students and faculty.
Department: School of Continuing Education
Ryan has done an excellent job at developing and refining a Noncredit application that is streamlined and easy to use for Noncredit students. In a time of COVID where in-person contact has been challenging, developing an online Noncredit application that allows students to both apply to the college and register in one, easy step has been a great achievement and brought increased equity to some of the most underrepresented and least supported community members.
Department: Biology
Thanks for all your amazing work pulling together more than 800 home learning kits for our biology students -- You helped our students continue their learning in the pandemic and supported the faculty in keeping hands-on experiences going despite lab closure! So grateful.
Department: TRIO/ Counseling
Thank you for all the great work that you do! Your hard work and dedication have made a tremendous impact on TRIO students.
Department: Social Science
Teri is always there to support her school, her colleagues, faculty, staff and students. I can't think of a more giving person on this campus.
Department: Admissions and Records
Erica has always taken care of the ESL students who have multiple questions for the Admissions office. She provides clear and detailed answers. Erica makes sure to include the necessary resources in her emails to students. Her guidance helps the student to complete different registration requirements.
ESL Students and I highly appreciate her professional manner and caring support.
Department: Office of Instruction
Max is awesome.
He has been super helpful with getting our tutors on board and registering them in the Success Center group and LRSV110.
You ask him to do something once and you can consider it done.
Whenever there is a problem with some web issues, he will follow up with it non-stop to make sure it is fixed.
I am so grateful for him and how he supports the whole campus.
He is very kind and sweet.
It is a pleasure to work with such a knowledgable and friendly colleague.
Thank you, Max.
Department: Kinesiology
I really appreciate my co-department chair, Erika Vargas. She has been by my side for two semesters now supporting me in my role as department chair in kinesiology. She took on many responsibilities that I was not able to manage during the pandemic. I am so grateful that Erika streamlined the accessible syllabi process, article 51 tracking, budget management, purchase orders and quotes, and organizing and delegating performance evaluations, forms, and documentation. She performed these duties while also serving as our head women’s aquatics coach and faculty fellow for Native students. Erika goes above and beyond the call of duty and does it with grace and a very big smile. I really appreciate her. Thank you Erica.
Department: Office of Instruction
You know how lost we would be without you in Curriculum. Thank you for being our go to for eLumen issues, putting up with the mistakes faculty make on courses and programs, and overall just always keeping your calm so it make it easier for the rest of us to stay calm too. I see you and appreciate you!
Department: Success Center
May is one of our Embedded Tutors who is just amazing. She is kind, patient and knowledgeable. She often goes above and beyond her hours and job requirements to make sure students learn the material. Thank you, May.
Department: Library
Our college's amazing senior library media technicians are among the most supportive to our students. They have kept the library open all this academic year to function as a study space for students and are leaders in the Textbook N' Technology program. Literally hundreds of students in each term have benefited from their efficient service and they are so creative in flexing their processes to better support students. We cannot thank you enough for all you do.
Department: Records
During Spring 2021 semester, the Records Team has processed 1,586 applications for graduation as of today, which is about 400 more than at the same period last year. Loretta has worked late hours and weekends to help our Department to meet all State and District deadlines and assisting our students. At the same time, she has checked the athletic eligibility, making sure that our sports team are ready to participate in the games. She is not only an outstanding professional, but also a great friend. I have had a rough time in my personal life, which dramatically affected me physically and emotionally. She has been always there for me, finding words of compassion or bringing little flowers. I cannot thank her enough for all her work on personal and professional level.
Department: ASWVC Student Government
ASWVC’s Vice-President of Legislation, Emily Lemas was the senate’s student representative for the 20/21 academic year. Vice President Lemas attended every senate meeting , provided on-going student updates, offered feedback, and was a true pleasure to work with. We are so proud of her accomplishments and grateful for her contributions. The senate will miss her!
Department: Marketing Office
Debbie is very detail orientated with her work. She patiently and perfectly has helped me to create several flyers and marketing images or files. Sometimes, due to an urgent matter, I have requested a last-minute meeting with Debbie. Without any further questioning, she has always accepted the meeting. Together, we have finished many projects and flyers for some programs as DESP Orientations, Guided Pathways Pillars II III workshops, Faculty Fellowships, Classified Senate new logo, Classified Senate awards, and ESL Welcome Message. Thank you, Debbie, for all your support!!
Department: Instructional Technology and Services
Thank you for all your help! Donna goes out of her way to help with any of our projects.
Department: DESP
Many, many thanks to the DESP Classified Professional Staff, Shamiran Badal, Chris Jackson, Mike Scaletta, and Tanya Southworth who have worked exhaustively this past year + when the college was suddenly moved online due to Covid to make sure that services continued with the least interruption. They all came up to speed overnight with Cranium Cafe and Zoom, worked to establish access to their remote desktops, downloaded Google Voice, and were diligent in monitoring DESP email and voicemail, and our online platform, DESP Online Services to make sure communication lines were available for our students. Shamiran and Tanya worked with Donna Nguyen to improve our web site and to create fillable forms to make sure information was easily accessible and documents could be easily submitted; Mike made numerous visits to meet students to distribute specialized equipment; Chris assisted students with access to technology. I am very grateful for and commend the DESP Professional staff for their numerous contributions toward keeping our team connected and meeting our students' needs in the online environment.
Department: Admissions and Records
Ana always responds to my questions and provides the most thorough and complete answers. She is friendly, caring and thoughtful.
Department: Instructional Technology and Services
Donna's cooperative work is exemplary. Despite her busy work schedule, she is always available and responsive to my emails. I have worked with Donna on several DESP and Caring Campus projects. If I schedule a meeting with her, she makes her best to use the meeting time most productively.
If I make several corrections on the final work, Donna patiently works with me and makes sure that the entire project is professionally completed.
Thank you, Donna, for your time, work, and kind care!
Department: Human Resources
Tania is great. She is always quick to reply to emails and goes above and beyond to make sure a new hire happens as quickly as possible.
We hire students all throughout the semester and Tania is always there to reply to our questions and help us with the process.
She is working only 3 days a week but she gets a lot of work done just to support college and the hiring process.
She is patient, friendly and kind.
She never makes you feel bad about your frequent emails to get the work done.
She is just amazing.
Thank you, Tania.
Department: DESP
Tanya stepped in during a time of great need to support the kinesiology department in completing the fall 2021 scheduling process. Tonya took over the revision process, create a new courses in banner, and made edits during white copy review. I appreciate the work she did on top of her regular duties as an administrative specialist for a large department across campus. Tanya is always smiling and very patient.
Tisha, thank you so much for being a guiding voice in the board meetings about important social issues. It is not easy to make people aware of uncomfortable issues like hiring a police chief that has a poor history with people of color. If West Valley-Mission wants to be antiracist it is important that these topics are brought to light and I see and appreciate what you do to make that happen.
Department: Counseling
Julie is the epitome of internal customer service. Not just customer service, but her attitude of being happy to assist you. I'm sure this carries over to all the students she helps as well. She is a model employee.
Department: Human Resources
Rose was a great support during my time at West Valley. From the hiring process to the exit form she was always available for clarifications. I loved her professional and caring answers. Thanks Rose to ease my journey here at West Valley!
Department: Admissions
Julie has the patience of Job. She will stop what she's doing to help a co-worker. She will explain and explain until you get it. She will encourage her co-workers not to give up on a particular problem. She's very knowledgeable and knows pretty much the whole matriculation process. She uses her Job-like patience with students too. Not to mention her artistic creative talent that she brings to the office! Because of Julie A&R are 3-time champions in the Halloween contests. Incredible talent.
Kudos to Julie!
Department: Counseling
Julie has been a massive help with helping students connect with counselors, clearing prerequisites, and providing general information. She is a fantastic worker but an even better person. I truly enjoyed working with her, and I appreciate her support when I first started at West Valley College as a part-time counselor. Our counseling department is lucky to have her work with us, and she only makes our department that much better. Thank you, Julie, for everything you do for West Valley College!
Department: Counseling
In a word, Julie is always there! She replies to my emails at the soonest possible time that she can arrange her workload. Her support to the students who need to meet with a counselor is significant. I can see her smiling face through the email replies she sends me. Her positive energy and supportive manner have helped me never hesitate to reach out to her. You are amazing, and thank you for all your support!
Department: Administrative Services
Elizabeth is great at her job. She makes time help answer questions and she is always willing to help.
Department: Library
James, Michelle, and Abraham, kept the Library open as Student Study Space all year when every other on-campus building was closed. They processed and circulated many laptops and hotspots to students as well as textbooks and graphing calculators for semester loan.
Department: Admissions and Records
Ana facilitates the Guided Pathways Taskforce 2 with fluency and care. She invites people to participate by intersecting their work with the topic in empowering and thoughtful ways.
Ana is up for the challenging conversation. She is equity minded and antiracist. She is a fantastic leader and I'm so grateful to be her colleague.
Department: Instructional Technology and Services
Donna is above and beyond this world.
She has kindly accepted to process and update all of the employee bios submitted to her in a short amount of time.
She is already taking care of a lot of web services for the faculty and different departments but agreeing to help the Caring Campus team with such a big task is just amazing.
Thank you, Donna. Thank you so much for helping us be better seen and available to our students and colleagues.
Department: Administrative Services
Elizabeth no matter how busy, gave me the time to better understand budget and in particular grant budgeting. Her expertise, knowledge and friendly manner made her approachable, and a joy to work with. Her patience and understanding are much appreciated!
Department: Office of Instruction
Thank you for all that you do to help with curriculum! I am constantly impressed with your far reaching knowledge on all parts of the course and program process and your quiet and humorous one-liners. You know we would be lost without you, so thank you for putting up with faculty and all of your support!
Department: Science & Mathematics Division
In the midst of a pandemic, PREGNANCY, and birth of a newborn, Aleksandra has been there for the math department in so many ways. Thank you for all of your work scheduling and rescheduling courses, for handling all the paperwork, and overall responding so kindly to emails--especially ones not your responsibility when you could have just as easily deleted them. We see you and appreciate all that you do!