The Everyday Hero Award, a special program sponsored by the Classified Personnel Council that recognizes outstanding employees at Colorado State University, has been presented to Julie Sinkovitz, Charla Waity, Carina Pfenning and Albert Cones. The award is open to all CSU employees.
If you’d like to nominate an Everyday Hero, visit the CPC website.
Julie Sinkovitz
Julie Sinkovitz is the director of sports nutrition, and has worked in Colorado State University Athletics for three years.
She was nominated for this award because, according to her nominator, “the Principles of Community apply to everything she does” – in her service at a moment’s notice to food requests for football players, in her respect for employees who help out in the background, in her training and commitment to all sports, and in following CSU’s COVID guidelines.
Recent campus activities Sinkovitz participated in have included the Together Initiative Council that Athletics started over the summer and the book club conducted in the fall. She especially loves working with the athletes at CSU.
“They all come from very different backgrounds and I’m always learning something new from each of them,” Sinkovitz said. “I love seeing how passionate they are for their sport and how proud they are to be a CSU Ram. Being a part of CSU is like being a part of a family and I am grateful for everyone I have the opportunity to work with.”
Sinkovitz’s favorite sport to watch is college basketball. Having done her undergraduate studies in Maryland and worked with the basketball program at Kansas University, she says, “I am a huge Terps and Jayhawks basketball fan. March Madness is my favorite time of the year!”
Sinkovitz is also a former collegiate runner who still holds the 800m indoor record at the University of Maryland. Naturally her interests include going for runs and working out. She also loves to cook and try new things, and said that if she could choose anyone with whom to share a meal, she would choose Jesse Owens because he was her hero growing up when she started becoming interested in running.
Charla Waity
Charla Waity has worked at CSU Libraries since July 1999. Waity began in the database maintenance unit in Technical Services at Morgan Library, but in 2001 switched to the cataloging unit, which soon combined with the acquisitions unit. Waity has been in the monographs acquisitions unit ever since. “I am honored to be part of the team I work with,” she said.
Waity’s nominator for the Everyday Hero Award wrote, “Ever wonder how library books get onto the shelves in the right locations? … Items end up in the right place, on hold for the right patron, labeled and cataloged properly for the right library and sub-location, and all at the right time. Charla is an unsung everyday hero within the library community itself and – most certainly – within the university as a whole.”
For Waity, the most enjoyable part of the position of Library Tech II is the people “who are professional, curious, engaging, and intelligent human beings. They really care about their jobs and do the best they can with what they have available, while maintaining high standards and expectations.” Waity also likes being able to work within an educational field, a profession “that is always growing and changing the lives of so many.”
Waity’s interests are wide-ranging and she says it is difficult to be bored with such a rich environment to explore. “I am a curious person and like to follow the thread of my curiosity as I encounter daily happenings. In the past this has included many activities including travel, languages, art, literature, music, history, animals, plants, different lifestyles, hiking, etc.”
Carina Pfenning
Carina Pfenning has been with CSU for four years and has served in her current position of Dining Services III (production cook) for a little over three. She was nominated for the Everyday Hero Award because she has demonstrated “an immense amount of flexibility and reliability during these unpredictable times,” taking on extra shifts to cover for employees, leading by example, and for her attention to pandemic protocol and the Principles of Community.
Her supervisor noted that Pfenning “stepped up to ensure the students remaining on campus still received an extraordinary dining experience. Her ability to adapt to a completely different operational model helped the entire department run smoothly in a difficult time.”
Acknowledging the award, Pfenning explained that her coworkers and the students make what she does fulfilling on a daily basis. Extending the recognition to all her friends and coworkers at Durrell Dining Cneter, she said, “Everyone I work with should be recognized for the continuous effort they’ve all given.”
Pfenning is a Colorado native. Though she never learned how to ski or snowboard, she started rock climbing a couple of years back, making the discovery that “it’s the most satisfying sport I’ve ever participated in.”
Albert Cones
Albert Cones was nominated for the Everyday Hero Award because, as his nominator said, “It is clear that Albert is a bright and kind soul, but Albert too has the drive and passion for work, education, and the overall betterment of society that our world could use right now. There is no doubt in my mind that Albert embodies what it means to be an Everyday Hero in that everyone regardless of education or social status could, and should, look up to Albert.”
Cones works for Facilities Management as a Compost Technician II in Operations. He said he was surprised and honored to be given this award.
