Fiorini Named KU Employee of the Month - Feb 2022

President on left, Fiorini on right accepting award.

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Congratulations to Julie Fiorini, management technician, Liberal Arts and Sciences, on being named Kutztown University Employee of the Month for February 2022.

Fiorini’s nomination from Dr. David Beougher, dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, reads:

“Julie Fiorini is well known across campus, having worked in several offices during her time at KU. She takes great pride in Kutztown, our students and our community. In a time of constant change, Julie is consistent in her concern about helping others to be successful and in celebrating those successes.

She organized and coordinated the Amazing Academic Race event at the start of the year with the express intent of creating a common experience for incoming freshmen and getting them oriented to the academic side of campus before the start of classes. This event involves all four colleges and is a massive undertaking, one that she handles with seeming ease and a sense of excitement about sharing our community with its newest members. This positive energy is ongoing and regularly visible as Julie manages our office social media messaging – a regular stream of highlights about student and faculty achievement.

Student workers are an integral part of the LAS Dean’s Office; Julie’s contributions to student success and a caring campus community are palpable as she assigns and oversees their work. Julie focuses on each student individually, working to understand their professional and academic goals and their strengths and thoughtfully creating opportunities crafted to each individual. Julie helps student workers shine by using their strengths while also helping them learn appropriate skills and habits that will serve them well in the future. Our writing intern learns about document design, the importance of precision and the work of revision and copyediting as he helps produce the office newsletter. Other students have become experts in Excel and how to set up a sustainable file system; one student was almost solely responsible for organizing our STEM open house under Julie’s direction.

Students are put in charge of our social media presence. They interview outstanding students in CLAS, create brief YouTube videos from these interviews and they are guided to follow Julie's example of highlighting student opportunities and accomplishments. Our student workers are given room to show what they can do and they are gently guided and vociferously cheered for their accomplishments. Julie takes great pride in the student members of our team and never misses a chance to brag about them. She has spearheaded our annual Dean’s Scholars Ceremony, transforming it from a small gathering in the lobby of the Graduate Center to a large celebration featuring students and their sponsoring faculty.

Julie has similarly devoted energy to supporting her colleagues, helping others to be successful. Julie has organized a regular, and multi-venue, series of help sessions called Sec Tech and has opened that professional development opportunity to secretaries across the university – not just LAS. There are sessions with invited speakers and technology training as well as weekly hints and how-to guides to share lessons learned. She has played a pivotal role in building a sense of community where new and experienced secretaries can exchange questions and ideas. She regularly receives calls from other offices asking for help, suggestions and even just serving as a sounding board to vet ideas and process changes. She is reliable and relied upon.

Julie epitomizes KU pride. She understands and values our university mission. She takes genuine delight in the success of our students, staff and faculty and she celebrates their accomplishments. I value her commitment to fostering a positive environment and sense of community.”

Nominations are collected from students, faculty and staff, and the Employee of the Month is selected by the Human Resources Advisory Council. A winner will be selected each month, and out of the 12 monthly winners one will be selected as Employee of the Year. The Employee of the Month will receive a plaque, reserved parking and a $100 monetary gift sponsored by President Hawkinson.

For more information on the award or to nominate someone, please visit the KU human resources website.