Each year at University Conference, BYU honors campus employees for their outstanding service, scholarship, and abilities. Learn a little about this year’s top three awardees:
Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer
Ramona Ovard Hopkins (AS ’75), professor of psychology and director of BYU’s neuroscience program
Most rewarding: “Working with students. Whether that’s teaching or doing research in my lab, . . . it’s the best part of what I do.”
Why psychology? “I have a son who had an accident where he experienced a lack of oxygen to his brain. . . . I started trying to find ways to help him and realized there wasn’t a lot of research. It ultimately led me to go back to graduate school in psychology.”
Guilty pleasure: “Curling up with a good book about history and finding a place to hide out and read uninterrupted.”
Ben E. Lewis Management Award
Chelita de la Roca Pate (’92), coordinator of international study programs
Most rewarding: “The light in the students’ eyes when they connect to a culture or a language or a country.”
Favorite travel program: “How do you choose? Every culture has its uniqueness. And every time you go to a different country it just presents different learning opportunities.”
Dark secret: “If I tell you what country [has the best dark chocolate], there will be a lot of people disagreeing with me. . . . I really like European dark chocolate.”
Fred A. Schwendiman Performance Award
Charles M. Andersen, special-events supervisor for BYU athletics
Most rewarding: “Seeing a facility set up, clean, and ready for an event. There’s a certain pride in presenting BYU’s facilities in a positive light to visitors.”
Worst custodial cleanup: “We had a microburst in the Marriott Center parking lot and the drains couldn’t handle it, so [mud and debris] overflowed and came right down the hill into Miller Park. It was bad.”
Favorite spot on campus: “The press box at Miller Park, looking over the baseball field.”
