Regional Winner
Month: June 2012

NACURH, INC.

Institution Faculty/Staff of the Month

School: University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Region: GLACURH
Nominee: Dr. Ivy Bohnlein Nominator: Braden Krien

On-Campus Population: 4000 Chapter Size: 40

Please explain the outstanding contributions of the nominee during the month of nomination

Dr. Ivy Bohnlein was an exceptional addition to the faculty at UW-Eau Claire when she joined us last fall and her commitment to students has been readily apparent from the very first day here. This past month she worked in a variety of ways with upperclassmen honors students to welcome in our incoming class for this fall. The first way that Dr. Bohnlein did this was in providing support and guidance to our new group of Honors Envoys, a group of returning students in our Honors Living Learning Community who correspond with the freshman in next year's community to ease the transition to college. Dr. Bohnlein was instrumental in creating this program a few months ago and her support for it throughout this past month has been a great help to both the Envoys in the program, and the incoming freshman that they mentor. Her support has enabled the Envoys not just to hone their leadership skills but to hone them over the summer, an impressive feat for any educator. Dr. Bohnlein also ran the orientation session for the freshman coming into the Honors program here at UWEC in the fall. She worked with three upperclassmen students to explain what the Honors program is, answer questions about both the Honors Program and the University, and help students register for classes. Anyone who has gone to college can tell you what a stressful time the summer before college is. As an incoming freshman there are so many questions, concerns, and stressful moments because absolutely everything is so new. Over the course of our orientation, I watched as Dr. Bohnlein worked with students to alleviate these concerns, helping both students and parents get ready for move-in day in the fall. Her efforts have helped both these students, and, through the Honors Envoys, many other incoming students as well. These efforts have better enabled our incoming class of freshman to register for classes and start to focus on the things they need to do academically when they arrive here in the fall. She has begun to enable the scholarship of a whole group of freshman before they even arrive, getting their college career off to the right start and helping them to jump right in to life at UWEC. Of course, Dr. Bohnlein has not allowed the efforts of the upperclassmen helping her to go unrecognized. She regularly and genuinely thanked her three Honors Student Orientation Advisors and even brought them cupcakes on the final day of orientation. This month Dr. Bohnlein has enabled the scholarship and leadership of a fairly large number of UWEC students and then recognized the efforts her students were making. She has served as a guide and mentor to upperclassmen and as a resource and advisor to incoming freshman. She has been an essential part of the process of welcoming students to our university and has made a significant impact on the lives of students here at UWEC.

Word Count: 491


Date of entry into database: 2012-07-04 09:35:18

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