Outstanding Student Employee Awards for 3 LC student staff

The Language Center is pleased to announce three recipients of the University's Outstanding Student Employee Award: Bryant Cotner, Anna Kaminski and Bethany Schowengerdt.  This award is presented to the top 10% of student employees at the University.  Each of these students played an integral part in the support of language teaching and learning at the University of Minnesota this past year.  

Bryant Cotner works in the Classroom Support area, where he has provided calm and competent assistance to instructors and students alike for the past five years.  In addition to troubleshooting issues in the classrooms, Bryant also served as our undergraduate computing specialist and helped to keep the computers at the Language Center updated and working properly.  He was also instrumental in the remodel of the Jones 15 classroom this past summer.  Bryant is graduating this spring; he will be greatly missed.

Anna Kaminski works in the Main Office area, where she is always eager to help university language instructors and students, however possible. Her enthusiasm and dedication to language learning is admirable and she has been awarded a well-deserved Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for Arabic and will be sent to Oman this summer for intensive Arabic instruction and cultural immersion. Although Anna has been with the Language Center for less than two years, it is hard to imagine the office running so well without her.

Bethany Schowengerdt is the Tandem Plus Assistant, where she helps connect language learners both on campus and around the globe. Gregarious, gracious, and unflappable, Bethany has been instrumental in maintaining Tandem's Face-to-Face, Class-to-Class and Guided Conversation programs and also helping launch the new Virtual Face to Face (aka "Skype Exchanges") this year. She is leaving to study in Senegal this Fall. We will miss her presence at the Language Center, but she's promised to keep us apprised of her adventures both in French and English.

Please join us in congratulating our undergraduate staff for their hard work and dedication!