ARHU 2023 Service Award Winners Announced

Six exceptional members of the ARHU community received an annual service award.

By ARHU Staff 

Each year, the College of Arts and Humanities honors faculty, staff members and students who have demonstrated excellence through service to their departments and the college.  

2023 ARHU Service Award winners: 

Kaylie Bergeson ’23, history | Undergraduate Student Service Award

For nearly two years, Kaylie Bergeson was a mainstay in the Department of History, completing a wide variety of tasks—from day-to-day operations including photocopying, filing and poster design for departmental events, to customer service duties like answering the phone, receiving in-person visitors and responding to questions from faculty and students. She also maintained the department’s webpages. Through it all, she was “unfailingly reliable in her work ethic,” said Principal Lecturer Sabrina Alcorn Baron. While also completing the two-year course sequence for History Honors, writing a thesis and being involved in the History Undergraduate Association, Bergeson was “a steady and bright presence in the life of the history department,” Baron added. 

Matré Grant, Ph.D. student in theatre and performance studies | Graduate Student Service Award

When Matré Grant joined the Ph.D. program in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) in 2021, she immediately offered to volunteer with the TDPS production of “Little Woman.” Since serving as assistant music director for that production, she has worked on several other productions in various capacities, supporting undergraduate artistic work and providing guidance and mentorship to students. Meanwhile, she’s also helped with faculty searches, workshops and professional development opportunities. Fellow doctoral student Melissa Lin Sturges added that Grant has been an “immense support to her fellow Teaching Assistants,” such as through organizing frequent end-of-semester study hours for the entire Ph.D. cohort and serving on multiple committees. Senior Lecturer Caitlin Marshall said Grant’s leadership style emphasizes “consensus building, shared accountability and intergroup motivation,” adding that “Grant has proven to be the quintessential glue that binds TDPS faculty, students and staff together in service to the common good.”  

Eyda Merediz, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese & associate director for graduate academic affairs and strategic initiatives in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC) | Faculty Service Award, Service to Department

In a nomination letter, 30 SLLC faculty members called Eyda Merediz “a force of nature, who has always led by example when it comes to undertaking any endeavor or initiative, facing any problem or unforeseen event, and standing by her co-workers whenever they needed it.” An employee of the University of Maryland since 1998, Merediz has served as director of graduate studies and director of the honors program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (SPAP) as well as head of the department; she has also participated extensively in search committees and hiring processes across the university. As head of SPAP from 2015-22 (a position for which she was elected by her colleagues), she was instrumental in increasing revenues and enrollments, led efforts to create and implement new branding for the department and revised the major and minor tracks to better serve a variety of learners. She has also been a liaison with the diplomatic community in the D.C. area; facilitated the visits of notable writers, scholars and public intellectuals from the Spanish-speaking world; and forged ties with institutions and people across the region. Aside from being “intelligent and articulate, she is also humane and hard-working,” said Professor Juan Uriagereka, “with an incredible capacity never to take ‘No’ for an answer and always to try again when something doesn't come her way.” 

Randy Ontiveros, associate professor of English and comparative literature and director of Honors Humanities | Faculty Service Award, Service to College

As director of Honors Humanities over the past three years, Randy Ontiveros has enriched the living-learning program experience for students with revitalized curricula, refurbished community spaces, increased extracurricular experiences and new community-building opportunities, as well as greater opportunities for mentorship, leadership and financial support. He has also worked to create ways for students across the university to see how the arts and humanities are critical to plural, diverse and democratic societies—such as through the creation of the Student of Color Collective, events like film screenings and a speaker series, and the Honors Humanities juried art exhibition, open year-round in Anne Arundel Hall, featuring work by current students and alumni. In a nominating letter, Graduate Assistant Shari Feldman D.M.A. ’23 said that students and staff “benefit from the unique blend of intellectual curiosity, genuine and youthful excitement, no-nonsense productivity, and holistic care and concern for the community—student, staff and faculty alike—that defines [Randy’s] teaching, advising, mentoring and leadership.” As a testament to the breadth of his scholarship and interests across ARHU, he also holds affiliate faculty positions in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the U.S. Latina/o Studies area of the Department of American Studies, and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center.

Nicco Cooper ’16, facilities services & scheduler in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures | Staff Service Award, Service to Department 

Since he began working in the SLLC community nearly 10 years ago while an undergraduate studying French language and literature, Nicco Cooper has taken on a growing variety of responsibilities to ensure the school’s smooth operations. From fixing computers and printer paper jams to figuring out how to represent enrollment trends graphically, “he is the one that virtually everyone turns to first with any problem,” wrote four faculty members and administrators in a nominating letter, adding: “He is probably the only SLLC community member who knows every single person in the school, by name, face, function and office number!” Most recently, Cooper has served as the SLLC point person during renovations to the HVAC system in Jimenez Hall, where SLLC is housed. This involved coordinating the moves of 34 faculty members to temporary offices. “Without his calm and rational mind, his extensive knowledge … his ability to conceive of a comprehensive faculty survey once the idea was floated, and his pure genius in creating and maintaining spreadsheet after spreadsheet to keep track of all the moving parts, I am not sure where we’d be now,” his nominators wrote. 

Scott Eklund, administrative coordinator of academic writing in the Department of English | Staff Service Award, Service to College

As vice chair of the ARHU Staff Council, Scott Eklund has led the council’s working group on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), helping to organize and encourage participation in relevant programming. Thanks to Eklund’s careful planning, last year staff—often neglected when it comes to DEI programming—had the chance to explore multicultural identities through a series of TED talks, as well as engage in a discussion on accessibility and universal design through a consideration of the film “Crip Camp.” Associate Dean and Professor in the Department of English GerShun Avilez said Eklund has “gone above and beyond the call of duty.”