Iowa State’s Office of Student Financial Aid held an award ceremony for the student employee of the year with a choice of over 50 nominees.
Tricia Stouder, senior assistant director for student employees, announced the winners at the event.
“I am excited to share the winners, and I can fully attest to the challenge that our review committee had this year when they were reading through our nominations,” Stouder said.
Before announcing the winner, three students were awarded student of distinction, including Alex Upah, employee for the physics and astronomy department, Tobias Hindman, employee for the Digital Ag Innovation Lab at BioCentury Research Farm and Lucia Salazar, employee for the Insect Zoo in the plant pathology, entomology and microbiology department.
The students of distinction were awarded a $500 scholarship.
Stouder announced the student employee of the year, Zara Babinat, an employee for The Bridge Home.
“We are delighted to introduce an exceptional individual who has served in their role for the last 18 months, a truly exceptional individual whose dedication, leadership and innovation have not only made a lasting impact on Iowa State but on the whole Ames community,” Stouder stated.
Babinat wasn’t expecting anything when the award was mentioned.
“It means a lot to me to do something that actually matters,” Babinat said. “Not to speak ill of anyone but there’s a lot of jobs that don’t really matter in the world, and I feel like helping out the unhoused community, helping them find housing, helping the people who need it the most and doing it in a place where I care about the local community.”
Babinat recently graduated last semester with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
“It’s sort of a nice little capstone on my Iowa State adventure,” Babinat said.
Taylor Lelonek, program specialist for the Office of Student Financial Aid, said it was a challenge choosing with over 50 nominees.
“We’re really proud to say that each of our winners, our students of distinction and our final winner, Zara, really did embody what we see as a student employee here at Iowa State,” Lelonek said.
Lelonek said Babinat is a part of the off-campus community service program.
“It is one of the first times we have an off-campus student with our award,” Lelonek said.
For more information on this award, visit this website. To celebrate National Student Employment Week, visit this website to see upcoming events.
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