IUP recently presented the Student of the Year and Supervisor of the Year awards as part of Student Employment Appreciation Week, April 12–18, 2009. The contest was coordinated by IUP's Student Employment Center in conjunction with National Student Employment Association.
Student of the Year honors were presented to Caitlin Hamryszak, Northern Cambria, and Supervisor of the Year to Dr. Catherine Dugan, director and chairperson of the IUP Advising and Testing Center. Kristen Laszlo was named Graduate Student of the Year for her work in the Political Science Department. Laszlo is a student in the Special Education and Clinical Services Department.
Hamryszak was also selected as the District Seven Student Employee of the Year, which includes institutions from Western Pennsylvania. IUP students are eligible to compete in the regional competition through IUP's membership in the Northeast Association of Student Employment Administrators.
Hamryszak, daughter of Valerie and Paul Hamryszak, is a 2006 graduate of Northern Cambria High School. She is an administrative and research assistant to Dr. Richard Lamberski in the IUP Communications Media Department. Her work includes updating new course material, assisting with the internship program, researching new course development material, website development, maintenance and development of the WebCT on-line learning system, and creating presentations.
She also works as a project assistant with Lamberski and Mark Anthony, director of the IUP Career Development Center, on a Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education internship initiative grant program.
She is a member of Lasting Impressions, the student-operated public relations organization, and won a National Collegiate Communications Award.
Runner-up and second runner-up for the undergraduate Student of the Year competition were Elke Caldart, Upper St. Clair, and Tabitha Yagle, Indiana, respectively.
Caldart, an Elementary Education major at IUP, is married to Jack Caldart, and they are the parents of two children, Andrew and Emma. She works in the office of the Community College of Allegheny County-IUP Collaborative Elementary Education program at the CCAC campus. She also tutors students in math and works with them in the development of their electronic portfolios.
She is a recipient of a Pennsylvania Board of Governors scholarship and was selected for membership in Kappa Delta Pi education honor society.
Yagle, an Accounting and Finance major, is the daughter of Darcy Taiani and Vincent Taiani, Sunset Drive, Indiana, and works in IUP's Eberly College of Business and Information Technology.
She is a 2006 graduate of Marion Center Area High School and a member of Phi Beta Lambda Student Accounting Association, the Eberly College of Business Student Advisory Council, the college's Strategic Planning Council and the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
Supervisor of the Year Dugan, of Indiana, has worked at IUP since 1985. She is the spouse of Dr. Nashat Zuraikat, and they are the parents of two sons: Laith and Faris.