The University of Kentucky College of Engineering is pleased to announce that Jennifer Doerge and Laura Letellier have been selected as the Institution Faculty/Staff “Of the Month” from the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH).
NRHH is an organization consisting of the top 1% of student leaders who live on the UK campus. Every month, university community members can submit nominations at otms.nrhh.org and a winner is chosen by the NRHH members.
Doerge is a freshman advisor who also serves as director of advising. Letellier is a First-Year Engineering (FYE) faculty member. She spends many evenings interacting with students in the Engineering Residential College (ERC), which is the college’s living learning program.
The college began its FYE program this fall with over 800 first-year students. The ERC is located at Woodland Glen III and has nearly 600 students.
Nominations for each of the winners are posted below.
For the Academic Hallwide program that took place in October we invited several advisors from the different colleges on campus. Our building is predominately engineering students and we decided to reach out to freshman engineering advisor, Jennifer Doerge. From the beginning she was eager to come to our program. At our program, she was very engaged in advising the residents. But what stood out to me was that not only was she interested in advising them but she knew them all by name. She also, knew other activities they were involved in, tests they had recently taken, etc. You could tell she was passionate about what she does. She was so upbeat and enjoyable to be around and the residents loved having her there. She had a table full of residents from the time the program started at 6 till an hour after the program ended! She even told me that if she could come to our hall and do this every single night of the week that she would. She loved being there and you could tell they enjoyed her being there too. Our program was very successful, with over 100 residents attending, but we couldn't have done this without her.
Over the past month, Professor Laura Letellier has demonstrated a diligent and caring commitment to the residents of the Engineering Living Learning Program and Woodland Glen III (WG3). Professor Letellier primarily teaches the EGR 101/102 course at The University of Kentucky (UK) and is a consistent presence within our residence hall as a support for all Engineering students. The EGR 101/102 course program is required for all first-year Engineering students and serves as a survey of various Engineering disciplines and technology required for success. The courses meet once a week (each) and are a fast-paced course through many topics in Engineering. As Professor Letellier has mentioned on many occasions, the course is rigorous for many students and has required much outside-of-the-class time to make sure students understand the material and succeed in the course. While Professor Letellier is not the only instructor for the course, she is, by far, the most dedicated and supportive faculty member that has worked with the residents in our hall.
From day one, Professor Letellier personally introduced herself to all of the RAs in WG3 (the primarily Engineering residence hall) and helped new residents move into their new home. As she met with the RAs and new students, she decided to hold weekly office hours in the building on Thursdays and Sundays to ensure that residents can get support for the EGR 101/102 course. Professor Letellier sets up a table in our lobby and spends a couple hours helping students and conversing with the RAs working at the front desk. On one particular occasion, Professor Letellier explained that she wouldn’t be hurt if she didn’t have residents stop by the table, she knew that being present for the students was the ultimate goal. Of course, there is always a steady stream of students passing by the table and completing experiments or getting homework help. Professor Letellier’s approach to students and student support is refreshing given the consistent divide between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs at many institutions. Professor Letellier seamlessly understands her students and is supportive of their academics. Professor Letellier shows compassion for her students and often spends late nights after class making sure all of her students get questions answered. All the RAs on staff have appreciated her caring and warm attitude and her addition to the WG3 family.
In addition to holding her office hours, Professor Letellier consistently updates hall staff about students of concern in her courses. In the current UK system, academic concerns go through many channels before being distributed to hall staff and advisors. While Professor Letellier always follows proper channels, she will give updates about students of concern to the Resident Director. This information is helpful for us to better respond to our residents of concern an identify resources for us to suggest for our residents.
It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Professor Letellier so far this semester. Throughout the last month, Professor Letellier has shown her commitment to residents and Engineering students through her office hours and tireless support of students. Professor Letellier is deserving of this award for her relentless work to ensure our students succeed academically both inside her course and outside. Professor Letellier is a role model for other faculty members and we look forward to our continued relationship with her.