When Jessica Hoffheimer told her third-grade class Monday that their tutor, Michael Kretsch, was the new Northwestern Student Employee of the Year, the kids at Dewey Elementary School got up and gave him high-fives.
“Mike, you’re a celebrity,” said 9-year-old Ayanna Stevenson.
NU’s Federal Work-Study Office presented the award at a reception Wednesday during National Student Employee Week. After reviewing 15 nominees, a panel of five judges selected one student each for an off-campus and an on-campus award.
Kretsch won the off-campus award, and Medill senior Kate Krepel, who has worked at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall for four years, was given the on-campus prize.
The judges looked at reliability, quality of work and unique contributions to the workplace. Winners received a plaque and a $50 gift certificate to Borders bookstore.
“In general, it won’t change the way students go at their job, because they work hard regardless,” said McCormick junior Matt Skaruppa, one of the judges. “But (the award) does a nice job selecting students that deserve accolades.”
Kretsch, an Education senior, started tutoring Dewey Elementary pupils after school Fall Quarter through America Reads. He switched to classroom work Winter Quarter.
This quarter, Kretsch works between three and 10 hours per week at Dewey Elementary. He said his tasks range from helping pupils read “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” to inspiring ideas for a student’s baseball essay.
“Everybody likes Mike,” said 9-year-old Stephen Adams. “It’s better when he’s here.”
Outside the classroom Kretsch plays basketball with the pupils and talks with them about the latest Sony PlayStation 2 games.
“It’s not just schoolwork,” Kretsch said. “You form a relationship with them.”
Hoffheimer said Kretsch’s motivation and initiative set him apart from past student tutors.
“The kids look up to him,” said Hoffheimer, who nominated Kretsch for the award. “He’s almost a big-brother figure.”
But for Krepel, the winner of the on-campus award, work focuses on another type of student: the college kid.
During Krepel’s four years at Pick-Staiger, she’s been called on numerous times to give her perspective to help boost the concert hall’s appeal to college students.
“She works really hard,” said Richard Van Kleeck, Pick-Staiger’s director of concert activities. “She brought some new perspective here.”
Krepel said she applied at Pick-Staiger her freshman year because of the concert hall’s “aggressive” work-study campaign and stayed all four years because of the work environment.
“They always let us know we’re important,” Krepel said. “They respect us and give us opportunities to do different things instead of just filing.”
Krepel has showed her commitment to Pick-Staiger by making contacts outside the NU community as well as designing layouts for posters and fliers. One quarter she worked 20 hours per week when two full-time employees took temporary leaves-of-absence.
“I’m amazed by the stuff she does,” Van Kleeck said. “I don’t know how she sleeps. She does so much and does it so well.”
But Jennifer Bolino, Pick-Staiger’s associate director of marketing and communication, said she is unhappy about two things regarding Krepel’s employment. “One, that she’s graduating,” Bolino said. “And two, it’s a real loss to my industry that she may not choose marketing.”
Krepel said she is grateful for the marketing experience she has learned at Pick-Staiger, but she is intent on pursuing law or journalism.
“If I ever wanted to (go into) marketing, I know I’d be qualified,” Krepel said. “It’s a great thing to fall back on.”
