December 15, 2020 - Announcing the UMSL Hero Award
Dear Colleagues,
As I shared with our students yesterday, I am so very proud of the many ways our entire campus community worked together to ensure that our return to the fall semester remained focused on supporting the health, safety and well-being of our people. Just as our students have demonstrated tremendous resilience during this time, so too have our staff and faculty – and for that, I am ever grateful.
Please know that – like our mission - you transform lives. Your dedication led us to a safe and successful semester and allowed our students to continue onward in their educational pursuits. Look no further than the more than 2,700 graduates who earned their degrees in 2020. When we celebrate their commencement this Saturday, know that we will also celebrate the many individuals at our university that supported their journey to degree completion and, now, UMSL alumni status.
I know that all too often the contributions of our staff and faculty to fulfill our mission can go unseen by the university at large. That’s why I’m pleased share details of a new recognition – the UMSL Hero Award – to highlight the unseen heroic efforts of our university’s staff and faculty.
Each month, I will present up to three staff or faculty members with the UMSL Hero Award in recognition of their efforts to transform the lives of UMSL students and those in the broader communities that we serve. Such accomplishments may be reflected through consistent exemplary performance, through sustained work activities above and beyond normal job requirements or through the superior support of our core values of trust, inclusion, innovation, access, success and engagement.
Recipients will receive a distinctive UMSL Hero lapel pin and public recognition through UMSL Daily and other university communication channels or events. My sincere hope is that this award will become a meaningful recognition that brings to light the work of our wonderful colleagues.
Please consider nominating an UMSL Hero by submitting a nomination form online. The Chancellor’s Cabinet will review nominations the first week of each month on an on-going basis with awardees being announced each month beginning in January of 2021.
As our semester and year come to an end, I hope that each of you will take time to relax, reflect and reset for the new year. We have much to accomplish and I have no doubt, that with this team, we will remain a beacon of hope for our community.
Sincerely,Kristin Sobolik
Chancellor
University of Missouri–St. Louis