This year’s honorees for the 2018 John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards from OSU Institute of Technology all were surprised by the accolade but also grateful for the recognition of a job well done.
“I was shocked, then I was excited and very appreciative,” said Dr. Jana Martin, dean of the school of Nursing & Health Sciences, who was recognized in the administrator category. “Everyone wants to hear ‘good job.’”
Nursing instructor Jamie Diggins was recognized in the faculty category and Safety and Energy Management Director Stanley Teague, in the staff category.
The John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Awards recognize outstanding contributions and leadership of faculty, staff and administrators from two-year colleges and universities across the country.
“I felt honored to be nominated, but I didn’t think I had a chance to get it,” said Teague. “We all work hard here and a lot of people deserve this recognition too.”
For Diggins, she said her students, and her fellow instructors, are why she has come to work at OSUIT each day for the past four years.
“I do what I do because I want the students to be successful. When you get recognition, there’s an internal drive to do even better,” she said. “I get so much support from my administrator and all the faculty I work with. We all support each other and encourage each other.”
Martin has been at OSUIT for 14 years and said being chosen as a Roueche Excellence Award winner is validation for the work and time she has put into her career at the university.
“It gives you motivation because someone is actually paying attention. It’s nice to get noticed,” she said. “It’s a scary time in higher education with budget cuts happening. This award came along at a good time, it makes the challenges worth it.”
But she knows she didn’t win this award alone.
“This award isn’t possible without my instructors and their hard work and diligence,” Martin said, and it means something that two of the three honorees this year came from the Nursing program. “I think it shows the dedication of the nursing instructors to the students.”
Teague said he doesn’t think much about the impact he makes day-to-day, but sometimes it takes someone else recognizing your hard work before you do.
“When I started 12 years ago and look back at what we’ve done in terms of safety and energy efficiency, we have come a long way. To have your work recognized, it’s a big honor,” he said. “We all show up and do our job. When this award came around, when you stop and look back at what you’ve accomplished with help from others, you realize you’ve come a long way.”