Ursuline College director gets award

Staff report

PEPPER PIKE, OHIO

Ursuline College Director of the Office of Counseling and Career Services Gerri Jenkins of Youngstown was recently awarded the Hazel Brown Award by the President of the Ohio Association of Employment in Education.

The Hazel Brown Award was named in the early 1980s for Hazel Weatherly Brown who was a faculty member and assistant director of education career services at The Ohio State University from 1951 to 1981.

The award was created to honor someone who has excelled in serving education students. The Hazel Brown Award is presented at the fall conference to a person from the career development field at Ohio colleges and universities who is an active member of OAEE, promotes the goals and mission of the organization and supports the advancement of the career field.

Jenkins has served as director of the Office of Counseling and Career Services at Ursuline since October 2000. She oversees the areas of counseling, career development and experiential education, as well as assessment for the Division of Student Affairs.

Before her arrival at Ursuline, she worked as the director of the Computer Learning Center Collaborative between Kent State University’s Trumbull Campus and the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority.

As the first internship coordinator at Youngstown State University, she expanded the concept of cooperative education in the College of Engineering and Technology, now Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

In her work with education students, Jenkins collaborates with her colleagues at Notre Dame and John Carroll to sponsor an annual forum of recruiters to speak to students about what they seek in a teaching candidate. Additionally, Jenkins served two terms as president of the Ohio Association for Employment in Education (2008-09 and 2009-10). She also served one term as president of the Northeast Ohio Association of School Personnel Administrators group.

Jenkins’ goal is to interact with each Ursuline College student between their arrival on campus and graduation. The office consistently reports student employment percentages three times above the national average.

“I am humbled and honored to receive the Hazel Brown Award,” she said. “This would not have been possible without the support of the faculty in Ursuline’s Education Unit, who generously provide access to the education students. This represents an excellent example of collaboration and student focus, which are two of the core values of Ursuline College. It is a privilege to work here.”

A doctoral student in the Higher Education Administration program at Kent State University, Jenkins has three grown children.