Brought to you by the Pomerantz Career Center, the Career Impact Awards recognize and celebrate award-winning students, staff, faculty, and business partners who have gone above and beyond to provide Hawkeyes with career resources, guidance, and opportunities in support of career success.
2024 Ceremony
Wednesday, May 1
3-5 p.m.
Levitt Center for University Advancement
2024 Keynote Speaker
Clarissa Chun, Head Coach
Iowa Women’s Wrestling
2024 Awards and Recipients
Faculty and Staff Awards
Alexandra Nica Associate Professor of Instruction and DUS, Economics | María Márquez Ponce Graduate Teaching Assistant, PhD Candidate, Spanish |
Clayton Peterson Associate Professor of Instruction, HHP | Linda Myers Academic Program Management Manager, BSN |
Colleen Kelley Senior Academic Advisor | Luis Aranda Interim Director of Center for Inclusive and Academic Excellence |
Dana Thomann Associate Professor of Instruction, Rhetoric | Mike Durney Assistant Professor, Accounting |
David Murhammer Professor, Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, Reseacher, Center for Biocatalisis & Bioprocessing, Investigator, Environmental Health Sciences Research Center | Mike Sneller 3D Design Product Designer at Protostudios, Office of Innovation |
Debra Trusty Associate Professor of Instruction, Classics, Museum Studies Coordinator | Monica Hall Clinical Nurse Coordinator |
Elizabeth Heineman Professor of History & Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies | Rodica Curtu Professor, Mathematics |
Jennifer New IISC Community Engagement Specialist | Sarah Hardin Lecturer, Sport and Recreation Management |
John Zielke Adjunct Faculty, Sociology & Criminology | Valentyna Bezugla Visiting Instructor, Mathematics |
Kimberly Fiock Staff Scientist, Department of Pathology | Yong Chen Professor & Interim DEO, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Researcher Iowa Technology Institute |
Highly Engaged Employers
AmeriCorps | Iowa City VA Health Care System |
Arrive Logistics | John Deere |
Cedar Rapids Community School District | Leepfrog |
ChildServe | MoLo Solutions |
College Community School District | Northwestern Mutual - Eastern Iowa |
Collins Aerospace | Principal Financial Group - Corporate Headquarters |
Community NeuroRehab | PwC |
Cottingham & Butler | RSM US LLP |
CRST The Transportation Solution, Inc | Schneider |
Echo Global Logistics | State Farm Insurance Companies |
Epic | Target |
EY LLP | Techtronic Industries, NA (TTI) |
Goosehead Insurance | Transamerica |
GreatAmerica Financial Services | Uline |
HNI Corporation | UnityPoint Health - Trinity |
Holmes Murphy & Associates |
Student Employee of the Year Awards
Alexis Belme
Stanley Museum of Art
Anna Giudici
Epidemiology
Cameron McKnight
Parking and Transportation
Emily Hartman
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Grace Cacini
Iowa Reading Research Center, College of Education
Katherine Lyu
International Student and Scholar Services
Maya Barros
Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Rachel Woodley
Parking and Transportation
Student Supervisor of the Year Awards
Nicholas Benson
Office of Community Engagement
Amanda Jensen
Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Charles Bermingham
Psychological and Quantitative Foundations
Erliang Zeng
Division of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, College of Dentistry
Jayme Johnson
Provost Office
Monica Hall
Otolaryngology
Whitney Zahnd
Health Management and Policy
Closing the Gap Grant Recipients
Congratulations to the instructors awarded in the second round of course development funds to enhance or create experiential learning in their course or create a new experiential course.
Paula Amad, Department of Cinematic Arts, Moviegoing Memories from the Midwest
Experiential learning includes community engagement, place-based research and production and preservation of professional oral history recordings focused on the social dimensions of moviegoing memories of family and community elders. This course will be the first community-engaged course in the department, bridging film studies and film production.
Inara Verzemnieks, Department of English, CNW:2991 & CNW:2992 - Publishing I & Publishing II
After introducing key concepts of literary publishing, experiential learning reinforces them through extended practice putting students in charge of all aspects of the publishing process. Students produce a literary publication from scratch, taking on various roles and responsibilities from soliciting commissions, editorial oversight, copyediting, design, budgeting, and marketing to produce and bring to press a bespoke publication by the end of the semester. In the second course, students work as part of a professional publishing house to bring a book to publication, culminating in a book launch event. These creative, project-based courses also end in real world events, allowing students to grapple with various roles, skills, challenges, and decisions relevant to not only their professional development but to seeing the immediate impact it has on the audience reception of their works. Each course will reach 40-80 students per semester.
Jennifer Sterling, Department of Sports, Media, & Culture, SMC:4500 - Sport, Media & Culture Capstone
Experiential learning includes community-engagement with national or local partners to contribute to recommendations and advocacy for equity in sports coverage or access to sport. The community-engaged projects will help students grapple with and understand the contemporary U.S. sports’ relationship with the media and how it intersects with other institutions, politics, economics, demographics, and culture. The capstone and community-engaged projects culminate this new program of study’s curriculum, giving students the opportunity to synthesize and apply the skills they have developed through their prior course work.
Anneke Sanders, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, BMB:3140 - Experimental Biochemistry
Experiential learning includes flipping the course from learning and practicing techniques to allowing students to act as researchers. Students will frame hypothesis instead of following pre-designed research questions, test their hypotheses, and perform quantitative data analysis of their acquired data. They will then communicate findings and conclusions, reflecting at various points on the experience and outcomes, and allowing students to see a full research project from design to completion. The course provides access to genuine research experiences to 60 students each semester it is taught.
Katherine Mellen, Department of Health and Human Physiology, HHP:3820 -Community Wellness Guided Practicum
Experiential learning includes partnership with the UI Food Pantry to plan, implement, and evaluate hands-on pantry activities including, cooking demonstrations, nutrition education, and health screenings. The course increases access to local experiential learning by reducing barriers to students such as transportation and financial costs. It allows students to evaluate and synthesize knowledge through client and staff feedback and poster presentations.
David Supp-Montgomerie, Department of Communication Studies, COMM:2829 - Leadership for Civic Dialogue
Experiential learning includes student facilitation of peer civic dialogues. After content framing, students will practice active listening, effective questioning, and balancing structure and openness through 5 workshops and then put their skills to use in real and relevant situations by acting as facilitators for the Division of Student Life’s Day of Dialogue events.
Kanika Arora, College of Public Health, CPH:3700 - Methods of Program Implementation and Evaluation
Experiential learning includes community partnerships to design, implement, and evaluate public health interventions. Community partners will provide students with an identified need in their community, answer questions, and provide feedback on proposed plans, allowing students to apply concepts taught in class, preparing them for situations they will encounter after graduation, and meeting needs of Iowa communities where public health departments are understaffed and/or overwhelmed following the Covid-19 pandemic.
2023 Ceremony
Highly Engaged Academic Departments
Accounting, Tippie College of Business | Geographical & Sustainability Sciences, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences |
Marketing, Tippie College of Business | Biology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences |
Business Analytics & Information Systems, Tippie College of Business | Computer Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences |
Finance, Tippie College of Business | Sociology & Criminology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences |
Management & Entrepreneurship, Tippie College of Business | Elementary Education, College of Education |
Statistics & Actuarial Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | Journalism & Mass Communication, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences |
Communication Studies, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | Political Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences |
English, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | Public Health, College of Public Health |
Enterprise Leadership, Division of Interdisciplinary Studies |
Highly Engaged Employers
AmeriCorps | Iowa City Community School District |
Arrive Logistics | John Deere |
Avenue Logistics | Johnson County |
Beacon Hill Staffing Group | Leepfrog Technologies, Inc. |
BerganKDV | Mercy Hospital Iowa City |
Cedar Rapids Community School District | MoLo Solutions |
ChildServe | Northwestern Mutual - Eastern Iowa |
Collins Aerospace | Principal Financial Group- Corporate Headquarters |
Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa | RHM Staffing Solutions |
Crew | RSM US LLP |
Des Moines Public Schools | State Farm Insurance Companies |
Echo Global Logistics | Swoon |
Eight Eleven Group - Parent Company of Brooksource, Medasource & Calculated Hire | Systems Unlimited, Inc |
EY LLP | Techtronic Industries, NA (TTI) |
Four Oaks Family & Children Services | The Hershey Company |
Gartner | Transamerica |
GEICO | USG |
Goosehead Insurance | Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield |
HNI Corporation |
Exceptional Campus Partner
This year's Exceptional Campus Partner award goes to the CLAS Advising Network.
Student Employee of the Year Awards
Student Employee of the Year: Overall WinnerErica Blaha, Office Assistant | |
Student Employee of the Year: Science, Health, & Engineering Category WinnerLauryn Renze, Student Laboratory Assistant/Eye Call Technician | |
Student Employee of the Year: Campus Services Category WinnerNatalie Davis, Admissions Representative, Student Event Assistant | |
Student Employee of the Year: Certificate of Distinction RecipientsDrew Dupont, Student Statistician Lauren Fergus, Student Team Leader C3G Natural History Study Jada McDonald, Outreach and Programming Assistant Isabella Mullins, Sustainability Intern Chase Thurman, Fitness Lead |
Student Supervisor of the Year Awards
Student Supervisor of the Year: Overall WinnerJim Hall | |
Student Supervisor of the Year: Certificates of Distinction RecipientsNicholas Bowman Ruth Chimenti Leslie Flynn Marie Gaine Genevieve Johnson Kate Ralston |
Closing the Gap Grant Recipients
Congratulations to the instructors awarded in the first round of course development funds to enhance or create experiential learning in their course or create a new experiential course.
Irene Lottini, Department of French and Italian, Faculty-led study abroad, ITAL:2330 – Mafia, Anti-Mafia, and Social Sustainability
Mark Bruckner, Department of Theater Arts, THTR:2690 – Sound Excursions: The Evolving Soundscape and the Reverberations of Human Activity
Matthew McGill, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, CBE:4460 – Process and Design for Technologies, Science Sensors, and Satellites
Paul Dilley, Department of Classics, CLSG:3001 – Archaic and Classical Periods
Nicholas Martini, Department of Political Science, POLI:3001 – Hawkeye Poll
Adam Brummett, Department of Chemistry, Faculty-led study abroad, ABRD:3049 – Sustainable Chemistry along the Rhine River: Germany, Switzerland, and France
Elizabeth Menninga, Department of Political Science, POLI:3527 – Civil War Research Lab
Beatrice Mkenda, Department of French and Italian, SWAH:2002 – Intermediate Swahili II
Ray Fagenbaum, Department of Health and Human Physiology, HHP:3700 – Healthcare Communications
Julie Gros-Louis, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, What Animals Can Teach Us about Being Human
Emilie Maurel-Destruel, Department of French and Italian, FREN:3007 – French Phonetics