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Faculty & Staff

Medrano Receives Nebraska Association of Collegiate Registrar's & Admissions Officers Rising Star Award

  • 23 January 2017

The Nebraska Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (NACRAO) presented Clarkson College Admissions Coordinator Jocelyn Medrano with the Rising Star Award at its annual fall conference, held in York, Neb. Nov. 9–11. This award is given to one NACRAO member each year and recognizes demonstrated commitment to professionalism and significant contributions to the organization.

Medrano is unsure who nominated her for the Rising Star Award but believes her nomination came as the result of a presentation she gave on diversity and cultural competence at the New Counselor Workshop she attended in Kearney, Neb. last August. “This was a hard task because no one had ever presented on that topic at this workshop before, so I basically had to start from scratch,” says Medrano. Presenters at the workshop oftentimes repurpose presentations given the previous year, but Medrano wanted to make hers new and relevant. She received permission to use Center for Teaching Excellence Dr. Ricardo Varguez’s module for Diversity and Cultural Competence as a foundation. “It is a topic I am passionate about and one that is very important for admissions counselors, so I hope the attendees learned a lot from it.”

Just prior to announcing Medrano’s selection as this year’s Rising Star Award recipient, NACRAO representatives shared the names of all nominees—one being Medrano’s fellow Admissions Coordinator, Becca Gordon. “We were sitting next to each other when they announced that Becca was nominated,” Medrano says. When they announced Medrano was the recipient, she was in a state of shock. “I think my mouth fell open,” says Medrano jovially. “There are so many rock star admissions representatives around the state, so I was honored that they chose me.”

Medrano earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 2013 from Midland University, where she proceeded to work as an admissions counselor for two years following graduation. She joined the Clarkson College Admissions staff in summer 2015.

“I can’t take any credit for the short distance I have come since graduation,” she says. “I have a God who is the orchestrator of every good thing in my life (including this job and this award), so all the credit should naturally go to Him.”

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