Above and Beyond Winners
As a way to recognize the hard work and dedication of our staff, Big Sister has begun recognizing standout stars with the Above and Beyond Award. Winners are nominated by their fellow Big Sister coworkers, and are selected because they are not only reaching their professional goals, but have gone “above and beyond” to help the entire agency reach our goal of serving 5,000 girls and raising $5 million by 2010.
This month’s winners are…
Susan Hooper, Intentional Mentoring Coordinator
Susan has been with Big Sister for nearly four years. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Psychology and also holds an LICSW. She began at Big Sister as the Coordinator of TEAM Group Mentoring and moved into her current position as Big Sister’s Intentional Mentoring Coordinator this past year.
Susan received the Above and Beyond Award in her role as Intentional Mentoring Coordinator for increasing the size of each training cohort from six agencies to eight, engaging key leaders in the agencies she worked with, providing five monthly staff development workshops, giving customized technical assistance to other mentoring agencies and providing gender-sensitive mentor training at the United Way.
In addition to her daily responsibilities at Big Sister, Susan volunteered to be co-chair of Rodman Ride, a fundraising bike ride; worked on the Summer Soiree; volunteered at School-Based Mentoring year-end events, facilitated Group Mentoring programs when needed and participated in Big Sister’s Visitors Program.
Maren Johnson, Marketing Communications Specialist
Maren has been with Big Sister for nearly nine months as the Marketing Communications Specialist. She holds a B.A. in English and Anthropology from Bucknell University and a M.A. in Advertising from Syracuse University. Maren produced tool kits for the entire staff and Board of Directors in order to create consistency in Big Sister’s messaging, revamped Big Sister’s newsletter, produced Big Sister’s Annual Report, created various publicity and event materials and managed the production and launch of Big Sister’s new website.
In addition to her responsibilities as Marketing Communications Specialist, Maren has volunteered at Big for a Day activities, helped out at School-Based Mentoring’s year-end events and participated in the One Earth One Climate rally which was co-sponsored by Big Sister. She also provides graphic design for all departments at Big Sister and keeps the office in a constant supply of candy!
