The Chancellor’s Staff Recognition Awards honors the achievements of staff members across campus whose hard work, dedication to excellence and push for innovation make significant contributions to the mission of the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Chancellor Domenico Grasso welcomed the crowd to the Nov. 13 breakfast award ceremony, recognizing the staff as the backbone of the university and noting longevity as one of the greatest strengths and a reflection of a strong campus community. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the median number of years that wage and salary workers have been with their current employer was 3.9 years in January of 2024, the lowest since January of 2002. This reception shows how dedicated so many of our staff are to serving our students,” said Grasso. With staff receiving awards recognizing over 1075 years of service, UM-Dearborn is pushing back against the national average, he noted.
Each year, the Staff Recognition Committee chooses a university partner to highlight and this year’s selection was the Early Childhood Education Center. Catie Stone, academic director of the ECEC and a featured speaker at the event, echoed the Chancellor’s sentiment about the impact of UM-Dearborn’s staff.
“I am so lucky to work with a team like this. I’ve never seen a more dedicated, knowledgeable, inspiring, dynamic and fun group of educators,” said Stone. “The Early Childhood Education Center has had over 10,000 kids directly educated by us over the years. Since we work as a lab school, we’ve also indirectly impacted hundreds of thousands of children throughout the state. We taught their teachers.”
A highlight of the event was recognizing Mail Room Motor Vehicle Operator John Kaszewski for 50 years of service. The audience honored him with a standing ovation.
In addition to the 81 staff members celebrating milestone anniversaries this year, five awards were presented to people or teams who went above and beyond in their roles across campus to support UM-Dearborn’s mission. This year, the committee received 44 award nominations – a record number.
