Student Employee of the Year
What is Student Employee of the Year
Every spring, colleges and universities around the country coordinate a selection process to choose one student employee from their campus whose outstanding contributions and achievements through their work set them apart from their peers. The hard work and dedication shown by these students exemplifies how student employment is a high-impact practice that helps to prepare students for success in their future careers and the workplace. Starting with a nomination by the student's supervisor, all applications are accepted and then analyzed by a selection committee. The committee then decides who should be the recipient of the Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year, Graduate student Employee of the Year, Excellence in Service, Excellence in Leadership, Excellence In Diversity & Inclusion and Excellence in Technology & Innovation. After a decision is reached, the honor of these awards are bestowed upon the chosen students and their work is celebrated during National Student Employment Week. The Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year will also move onto the National Student Employment Association (NSEA's) selection process for a chance to be named Sate, Regional, or the National Student Employee of the Year.
Year 2022-2023

Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year: Emily Shaw
Department: RISE and Department of Public Safety
Job Title: RISE Marketing Student Employee and Pepperdine Mobility Driver
Major: Psychology
Career Choice: Clinical Therapist
"I love my supervisors, Stacey Lee and Debra Cowart, and I am so grateful for their mentorship. I also love being able to serve the Pepperdine community through my roles." - Emily Shaw
"I see Emily striving to live out the growth mindset in all she does, not just in her work, but also in her friendships, her relationships, her academics, and her faith - in every area of her life. I hope that I have shared many examples above of the ways she consistently strives to innovate, change, and improve to better serve others, whether that is learning and suggesting a new technology, hosting a never-before-done video series on Instagram, or even volunteering to be one of two student co-hosts for the RISE Summit itself!" - RISE

Graduate Student Employee of the Year: Emily Gerst
Department: Student Activities
Job Title: Fraternity & Sorority Graduate Student Assistant
Major: Dispute Resolution
Career Choice: University Ombudsperson
"I love working as a part of the Student Activities team! My supervisor, Molleigh, is incredibly supportive, she consistently gives me opportunities to use my strengths, pursue my interests, and gain new skills. I enjoy being in a role where I get to work with an amazing team and serve students in tangible ways. My experience in FSL and Student Activities has given me great insight into the world of higher education and helped me develop my post-grad plans." - Emily Gerst
"Emily is extremely dedicated to her professional development through this role. She is in constant communication with our students in a professional manner, she is timely in her approaches to working with students and staff, and constantly strives to improve the fraternity/sorority experience. Emily is also a great asset to other members of Student Activities and Student Affairs and constantly volunteers to assist outside of just the fraternity/sorority space as well. " - Student Activities

Excellence in Service: Stephanie Abad
Department: Jumpstart
Job Title: Jumpstart Intern
Major: Psychology
Career Choice: Clinical Psychologist
"I love seeing the impact that our program has on not only the communities we serve but also the student employees too. Knowing that we are making a difference for kids like I once was is my favorite part of the job!" - Stephanie Abad
"Stephanie has managed to make herself an invaluable member of the Jumpstart team. She has distinguished herself as a leader amongst the other students and student leaders that are a part of Jumpstart. This year Stephanie has managed to create training curriculum for Jumpstart's all day trainings and lead a group of 75+ corps members through the content single-handedly. Stephanie supports a multitude of programmatic efforts. Stephanie consistently supports other leaders who work in the office with their projects like jumpstart materials, data entry for compliance efforts, corps culture building, and more." - Jumpstart

Excellence in Leadership: Ethan Barragan
Department: RISE
Job Title: RISE Student Lead
Major: Political Science, Minor in Rhetoric and Leadership
Career Choice: Higher Education Staff
"While working at RISE, I have come to enjoy and greatly appreciate the growth opportunities in my role. I'm grateful for having the confidence and support of my supervisors to host various events in line with RISE's six dimensions of resilience. Working with Jackie has been a blessing, and her leadership has allowed me to grow both professionally and personally. I look forward to me and Jackie's one-on-one meetings every Monday afternoon, where we catch up from the weekend and make a plan to get things done during the week. I've had the privilege of working alongside Jackie for about two years at RISE, and we have accomplished many great things together. Thank you for always being in my corner Jackie!" - Ethan Barragan
"When Ethan wants to learn something new or feels that he has an area of growth to build upon, he immediately takes initiative and asks professional staff for opportunities to learn...Ethan did an absolutely fantastic job leading RISE & Thrive. He even had students approaching him after - once again, fostering that community." - RISE

Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion: Jacob Jones
Department: Boys & Girls Club of Malibu Wellness Center
Job Title: Community Affairs and Outreach Specialist
Major: Business Adminstration
Career Choice: Finance, Commercial Real-Estate
"Everyone at the Boys and Girls club is welcoming and are great examples to the kids and students at the schools around Malibu and LA. Siugen leads by example and has played an important role for the improvement of the community of Malibu." - Jacob Jones
"Jake has supported the Wellness Center by sending communication in Spanish and English to our parents for parent workshops and visiting Malibu Labor Exchange to support with our efforts to outreach these labor workers. Jake's professionalism with parents, students, staff and clients at the Wellness Center is remarkably special with our minorities population. He makes them feel safe and welcome to come and ask for social and mental health services. Collaboration is always there for Jake. As a non-profit a lot of our events are fundraiser events and Jake is always available to be there supporting directly or indirectly. This year he ran the Malibu Half Marathon. We were one of the beneficiaries and he represented the Boys & Girls Club team on the run and he worked the next day on the event." - Wellness Center
Excellence in Technology & Innovation: Caroline Sun
Department: Genesis Lab (Pepperdine Library)
Job Title: Genesis Lab Student Assistant
Major: Computer Science
Career Choice: Software Engineer
"What I like most about my job is being able to help students and faculty print the most creative and fun models that could also be useful in their day to day lives." - Caroline Sun
"Caroline is an incredibly hardworking student and integral to the success of the Genesis Lab. She is receptive to instruction, traning, and advice and quickly implements and pivots based on the feedback she receives. She ensures that the 3D print requiests that the Genesis Lab receives are organized and completed efficiently and has become the resident expert on the Cricut Maker machine, designing her own stickers and guiding other students through their own projects. One of the msot fun projects we've worked on together was the building of a hologram projector which currently lives in the Genesis Lab and frequently elecits "that's so cool!" comments from our visitors" - Genesis Lab (Pepperdine Library)
View 2022 Program for more information about each nominee
View 2023 Program for more information about each nominess