Catherine Chandler, 2015 GW Award Recipient

Catherine celebrated the news by treating herself to gelato. And then ice cream. The “Double Down.” And with “lots of hysterical crying,” she says. “I am not a pretty crier.”
 
On Friday, April 17, Catherine was informed that she is one of three recipients of the 2015 George Washington Award by the Joint Committee of Faculty and Students. The Award is the highest and most prestigious that any GW community member can win. On Sunday, May 17, Catherine will sit on stage at Commencement on the National Mall to be recognized in front of tens of thousands of spectators as one of the most accomplished, respected, and deserving of our numbers.
 
Catherine began working as a Program Officer in the University Honors Program eleven years ago this summer. She holds an advanced degree in Art History, but as she pursued her degrees, she realized her love of working with college students and the institutions of academia. For three years, she served as a peer adviser, or “preceptor”, at Wheaton College, her alma mater. She also served as the program’s supervisor.
 
In the past eleven years, the UHP has gained a prestigious place within the University. Catherine is too modest to voice her own great contributions to this success. She is proud that UHP enjoys “a very good reputation among other professionals on campus. We have good connections with all of the advising offices and the deans’ offices. People enjoy working with us and they enjoy working with our students. We’ve built a lot of really great relationships over the years.”
 
Her students and coworkers recognize her efforts in building many of those great relationships with her patience, her wit, her professionalism, and her absolute dedication to the program and school. She observes that the UHP has turned into an “integral intellectual community of students with shared experiences and shared values as scholars,” of which she is happy to be part. She leads the flourishing student peer advising program, paves the way for students to seamlessly integrate the UHP into their GW career, and is a backbone of emotional support that her students and coworkers need.
 
In the past few years, she faced great challenges in her job. Amongst them, she was twice left as the sole Program Officer. When asked how she persevered through these overwhelming times, she recalls, “After the first time I was alone, I learned a lot… it prompted me to come up with some pretty clever solutions and some things that have become really good practices, such as having peer advisers review four year plans… Borne of difficulty, but ultimately a good thing.” Always seeking to improve upon her service and ensure her students are well cared for, she bore these rough times admirably.
 
Several months ago, when presented with a copy of her nomination, which included more than twenty letters of support, Catherine quietly set the folder in her lap and put on a brave face for her afternoon appointments before letting herself read the thick collection through. To those students, alumni, faculty, and staff who contributed emotional, gracious, gushing letters of admiration, ‘thank yous’, and support, she sends a message:
 
“I want to thank the people who wrote nomination letters… for the time they put into it and the sincerity they put into it. I want to thank everybody in the Honors Program and everyone who has been in the Honors Program for the past eleven years for making it such a wonderful place to work, and so challenging and exciting that I really can’t picture myself working anywhere else.”
 
The Award makes Catherine the second UHP recipient in recent years, after Assistant Director of Finance and Administration, Eydie Costantino, received the award in 2011. The Award stands as a magnificent “thank you” from Catherine’s students and coworkers, and in recognition that the University could use more people like Catherine Chandler.