Oksana Carlier
Winonan

The annual dean’s brunch will commend high-achieving students April 14 at Winona State University, said the vice president of  the National Residence Hall Honorary, or NRHH.

Steve Gottsacker, vice president, said, “The deans encourage and inspire the students to keep working hard.”

The vice president plans the event each year with help from the NRHH members. The planning starts very early, Gottsacker said.

“The dean’s brunch is a celebration of the scholars here at Winona State University,” Cody Lightfuss, President of NRHH, said.
Since NRHH is an organization with the aim to recognize people, this event fits the bill by celebrating students who get on the Dean’s List. Students get to sit with their respective deans at the event.

“The brunch is a wonderful opportunity for students to get to know their deans and vice versa. In addition, faculty and students who already know one another get to strengthen their connections,” Lightfuss said.

This year the theme is education, ranging from elementary school to the college level.

Unlike years in the past when it was a dinner event, this year will be a brunch. Gottsacker mentioned that doughnuts would be served, among other food.

An annual tradition for the dean’s brunch is to have two of the deans speak at the event. They choose the speakers among themselves, and each speaker relates his speech to the overall theme of the event.

Gottsacker said more than 800 students were invited to the event this year. The number of members helping with the event will also be large since NRHH doubled its member count from last year.

The organization recognizes other students, faculty, and groups each month through Of the Month (OTM) awards, which are short essays that describe what the person (or group) did to deserve an OTM award.

“One thing I thought about this year is that we’ve been really reaching out more to people since Of the Month submissions have been rising. Another way we’ve been getting our name out is recognizing different people,” Gottsacker said.

In this past academic year, NRHH recognized an array of people and groups at Winona State. Gottsacker also mentioned that both the library staff and technical support staff were recognized, something he did not think had been done in the past.

The dean’s brunch is another of the ways to recognize students for their hard work, Lightfuss said.

“My hope is that we can continue this progression and that we can reach out to new people in the upcoming years,” Gottsacker said.

Contact Oksana at [email protected]