October
Elmano Salazares, a carpenter
with the district for nine years 
Award criteria: Salazares worked with the Financial Aid Office
in procuring and installing a bulletin board in the Campus Center. His
nominators explained that he showed a huge amount of customer service
and saved the department from having to return a wrongly sized board.
“Elmano was creative and took the initiative to take several extra
steps to be sure that we could use the board as delivered, but with
his own modifications,” they said. “We truly appreciate
his professionalism and sense of humor in taking a bad situation and
turning it into a success. I was afraid he would stop taking our calls,
but he found a solution every time we found a problem. It was a joy
working with him!”
Specifics: “I like the variety of tasks
I perform at De Anza and enjoy using my skills to build and repair all
sorts of things here. I enjoy working with students, faculty and staff
and would like to thank everyone at Plant Services for their support
and assistance,” said Salazares, who worked in the district’s
Grounds Department prior to becoming a carpenter in the district.
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November
Bradley Creamer, De Anza’s
Webmaster for three years
Award criteria: “ ‘Guru of Geekdom’
is my endearing nickname for Bradley, our Webmaster extraordinaire.
His work behind the scenes affects everyone on this campus and beyond!”
said his nominator. One of his many projects since he was hired was
overseeing the Electronic Curriculum Management System (ECMS), a project
that took one-and-a-half years of research and eight months of writing
code, experimentation and implementation. It was designed and written
by Creamer with the collaboration of ETS, Articulation, Curriculum,
Scheduling and Marketing departments. The ECMS provides a searchable
online schedule of classes for each quarter, a streamlined and more
efficient footnotes system for the schedule, and a much easier conversion
and placement of course listings into the printed schedule of classes.
The nominator continued: “In just my area of schedule production,
I’ve watched Bradley think in code, find glitches and write corrections
on my computer in front of my own eyes. He is truly amazing.”
Specifics: “I’m very honored to be selected for
this award because it is a choice by my peers,” Creamer said.
“There are many excellent classified staff members who have been
at De Anza much longer than I. These people have been giving 110 percent
while working through the ongoing budget situation. Therefore, for me
— a newbie — to be chosen is quite an honor.”
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December
Matthew Rodriguez, an administrative
assistant for the district’s Short Courses Program for almost
six years
Award criteria: During the past several years, Rodriguez has
used his technical skills to create new systems that lend great efficiency
to the entire short course process — from registration to catalog
production to the instructor proposal process — according to the
nominator for his award. During that time, he also did an outstanding
job while serving as the interim coordinator of the Short Courses Program.
In addition, Rodriguez developed an excellent and visually creative
Web site for all Community Education programs. “The easy-to-use
Web site at community
education has promoted substantial growth in all our Community Education
programs,” added the nominator. “Matthew taught himself
the skills needed to develop, maintain and improve our Web site. He
has demonstrated tenacity, creativity and efficiency; and the Short
Courses Program has blossomed as a result.”
Specifics: More than 13 years ago, Rodriguez was hired
by Foothill-De Anza as a work study student and over time he worked
in the Planetarium, Sports Camp, Financial Aid, Health Services,
Counseling and finally Short Courses. “For the majority
of time, I’ve worked with Caron Blinick, dean of Community
Education,” he said. “I appreciate all the opportunities
the district, Caron and others have given to me.
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