By MARTY LEVINE
Editor’s note: The University Times is writing a series on the most recent winners of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award for Staff. Findi profiles of the remaining eight awardees in future issues.
Exceptional Early Career Achievement Award winner: Jorden King, assistant director of student and career services, Office of Student and Career Services, School of Education
“There are so many deserving people across the University,” said Jorden King. “It took me by surprise that I had won the award.”
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise: In 2024, King won a Jefferson Award from the national nonprofit Multiplying Good for his community work. But the Chancellor’s Exceptional Early Career Achievement Award recognizes his work right here at Pitt, in the job he has held since 2023.
At the School of Education, King plans orientation for all new students, including new juniors and seniors in upper-level programs, as well as department-specific programs throughout the year, from social events to career-advancement help.
That includes sessions for current students to network with alumni and for them to experience mock job interviews with real local school administrators, as well as an evening enjoying a showing of “Wicked,” for instance, and simple coffee hours.
The mock interviews, conducted every spring and fall, allow teachers in training to practice their job-seeking skills with administrators from primary and secondary schools and get feedback directly. The coffee hours offer education students the chance to connect with faculty and staff across the school, “creating a sense of belonging for students they probably didn’t know prior,” King said. And alumni networking nights allow those students “to see what it looks like after Pitt education, to see where their next steps could be.”
He also leads the Student Ambassador Program which recruits 10 current students to help with school programming. Sometimes the ambassadors lead a panel discussion; other times they are setting up and tearing down the evening’s chairs and tables. They may run a networking night or simply help out at the check-in table.
King’s Chancellor’s Award recognizes his “transforming” of the Student Ambassador Program, which began in 2020. Increase student interest in, and rewards from, the program involved making sure ambassadors got leadership training, alongside program planning skills, from their efforts, King said: “They see a benefit in helping the school – and also in what they get out of it.”
Today, King is working toward a PhD in higher education in his own school, with an eye toward becoming a school administrator or faculty member at an institution of higher education. The Chancellor’s Award, he said, helped him realize anew that others “find that the work that I was doing was actually impacting students.”
Commitment to Engagement and Wellbeing Award winner: Zach Davis, director of engagement and wellbeing programs in the Office of Institutional Engagement and Wellbeing
“Being in community with people,” said Zach Davis, is the essence of his work. In the Office of Institutional Engagement and Wellbeing, Davis is busy planning and producing events, advising Pitt communities (formerly affinity groups or employee resource groups) and running the office’s mini-grant program (see related story).
The spring crop of mini-grants have just been awarded to 10 programs (out of 30+ applicants), up to $1,000 each. Winning programs include a half-day conference for the Pitt Parenting Community about balancing being a caregiver and being fully employed and a School of Social Work conference on human flourishing.
“The best way we are at service is not about meeting people in the middle,” Davis explained about his office. “It is about meeting people where they are at. When somebody is asking for help, it’s not only lending an ear but it’s also making connections and following up. I know that I don’t know all the answers but it is working to get somebody the answers they need.
“Different people approach you in different ways,” he added. “Sometimes folks are experiencing forms of harm, or sometimes it is just a matter of being able to listen and offer to create sustainable forms of change. Not everyone is coming to the table with the same openness or background, so it’s just being ready to help.”
More than two years ago, Davis also decided to help the Pitt community by joining Staff Council. “I was looking for a new opportunity to connect,” he recalled. He became part of the organization’s justice, equity, diversity and inclusion committee and has enjoyed working on the group’s Spring Assembly (an annual professional development event) and its Pitt Day at Kennywood.
He also sees tremendous value in “being immersed in the shared governance process” through Staff Council’s work, he said, and working on “ways we can create a better campus.”
As for the award, he said: “It is the power of people at Pitt that makes it possible. I’m just happy to be a part of that community.”
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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