{"id":30365,"date":"2023-07-31T08:53:40","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T12:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=30365"},"modified":"2023-07-31T08:53:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T12:53:42","slug":"ucf-cos-june-2023-ace-award-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-cos-june-2023-ace-award-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet June 2023 College of Sciences Ace Award Winner: Tonya Walker\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The College of Sciences recognizes our outstanding staff with the Staff Ace Award. Winners of the Ace Award exhibit initiative to support COS while working well with those around them. They are \u201cmovers and shakers\u201d in their departments and inspire others with their leadership skills.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congratulations to our June 2023 recipient, Tonya Walker!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Tonya Walker\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/Tonya-Walker-2015.jpg\" alt=\"Tonya Walker headshot\" class=\"wp-image-30366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/Tonya-Walker-2015.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2023\/07\/Tonya-Walker-2015-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Title:<\/strong> Academic Program Coordinator II&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Department\/School: <\/strong>COS Dean\u2019s Office &#8211; Graduate Services Office&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Start date at UCF:<\/strong> August 2005&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hometown: <\/strong>Orlando, FL<strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How would your friends and family describe you?<\/strong> I just called my 9-year-old niece and asked her how she would describe me. She said, \u201camazing!\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you enjoy about your job? <\/strong>My favorite part of my job is the feeling I get when I am helping staff\/faculty\/students work through a challenging situation, and I can feel the relief and gratitude that they are not working through it alone. It feels good to be helpful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What do you enjoy about being a Knight? <\/strong>I have worked in the College of Sciences (in the Department of Sociology and now the Dean\u2019s Office) for almost 18 years, and I have really built a sense of community with the people I work with; someone is always there to listen to your problems and offer words of encouragement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Who inspires you at work? <\/strong>Our students really inspire me to always do my best and go that extra mile to make sure they succeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to staff members like Tonya, we can continue reaching our collective potential. Their hard work and dedication to UCF inspires us all to Charge On.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are a UCF staff or faculty member, <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/faculty-staff-awards\/#1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nominate your fellow staff members here.<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The College of Sciences recognizes our outstanding staff with the Staff Ace Award. Winners of the Ace Award exhibit initiative to support COS while working well with those around them. They are \u201cmovers and shakers\u201d in their departments and inspire others with their leadership skills.&nbsp; Congratulations to our June 2023 recipient, Tonya Walker!\u00a0 About Tonya [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":30367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,38,13,5967,25,28],"tags":[3397],"class_list":["post-30365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-notables","category-staff-news","category-top-news","tag-tonya-walker"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>June 2023 College of Sciences Ace Award Winner: Tonya Walker\u00a0<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meet the UCF College of Science&#039;s June 2023 Ace Award winner, Tonya Walker. 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