The Everyday Hero Award, a special program sponsored by the Classified Personnel Council that recognizes outstanding employees at Colorado State University, has been presented to Dean Helzer, Sandra Sanchez, Karen Guy and Megan Hauser.

Dean Helzer

Helzer was very surprised and honored to be nominated for the Everyday Hero Award. He gives credit to an outstanding team that enables him to do his job so effectively and wishes he could share the award with all of his co-workers. Helzer has worked at CSU for 25 years. The last 13 years, he has been the operations manager for the Collaborative for Student Achievement. Helzer enjoys everything about his position. He particularly enjoys supporting staff, customers and students. Ensuring staff can do their jobs is very important to Helzer.

Tony Ho nominated Helzer for the Everyday Hero Award. Ho says Helzer is an Everyday Hero because he always helps out staff and students with a smile, no matter what challenges the day produces, such as helping bring a new stadium online. To quote Ho, “Dean also works tirelessly to ensure that students with extenuating life and academic circumstances can convey their unique situations to an appeals committee to help students protect their GPAs and have their life narratives understood and supported by the University. … He is consistently a hero every day, and many times, his efforts and care for staff and students’ CSU experience is unfortunately unnoticed at times, because he always shows up with his best self.”

Helzer has participated in many committees at CSU over the past 25 years. He says, “Too many to recall.” Most have focused on customer service and satisfaction and how each department achieved its goals.

Helzer not only enjoys providing excellent customer service, he also is a double music major. He also enjoys old movies and reading mystery novels. Strike up a conversation about Agatha Christie with him sometime, and he has worked for Disney.

Sandra Sanchez

Sanchez was surprised and shocked to learn she had been nominated for the Everyday Hero Award. She has been with CSU and the School of Music, Theater and Dance the past 4.5 years. Sanchez views CSU and her department as her family. Because she sees CSU as her family, she views the students who she works with as such, and treats them as she would want her own college-aged children to be treated.

Steve Workman nominated Sanchez and had this to say about her: “It is my honor to nominate Sandra Sanchez for the Everyday Hero Award. Sandra is a very dedicated member of our staff who always goes above and beyond to help those around her. I can always count on her to answer any questions I might have, allowing me to do my job more effectively and efficiently. In the rare occasion she does not have the answers I need, she is always willing to help me figure it out and get timely responses from others if needed. She helps keep our department running and our students taken care of every day. It is not one big gesture, but it is her day-to-day actions and dedication that make her a hero to the UCA. If there is ever anything I need, I know I can count on her to get the job done. It is because of these great qualities that I don’t hesitate in the slightest to nominate her for this award.”

Sanchez has many hidden talents. She enjoys the great outdoors through bow hunting, fishing, boating, landscaping and traveling. She also crochets, quilts and enjoys a program with good acting that draws you in across all genres of entertainment. But most of all, Sanchez cherishes her family.
She states, “I’d love to take this opportunity to invite the rest of my university family to come and check out our shows.”

Karen Guy

Guy was very appreciative to be nominated for the Everyday Hero Award. Guy has been at CSU for years in her current position as an HR Data Systems HRIS tech support specialist. One of her favorite aspects of her position is to make the jobs of the HR liaisons across campus and all her customers’ jobs easier. She enjoys working with different people, HR personnel and her team. “Everyone is so helpful,” she said.

One of Guy’s favorite things to do outside of work is to spend time with her nephew and sightsee all over Colorado. Strike up a conversation with Guy, and you will see the joy she has for her nephew.

When asked who she would like to spend a mealtime with, without hesitation, Guy named Warren Buffet. She said she is amazed by Buffet’s ability to be so down to-earth and look like anyone you would pass on the street.

Adriann LaRue nominated Guy for the Everyday Hero Award. This is what LaRue had to say about Guy: “I have worked at the University for almost four years, and in that time I have frequently needed assistance from HR. Karen Guy is exceptionally helpful and timely. She is so kind as to advise or provide resources even when my request is outside of her scope of work. She also follows up to make sure my issue has been resolved. Karen exemplifies the Principles of Community (service, respect, integrity) in her daily work, and I could not think of a more fitting person to receive an Everyday Hero award.

Megan Hauser

Hauser has been with CSU and CSU Online for just over a year. She said her nomination was “very unexpected, since we are so isolated here at Online from the main campus, and I am so new. It is an honor to be nominated.”

Hauser was nominated by Sirui Wang because she inspires the team every day with brilliant ideas and humor.

Hauser said she enjoys working hand in hand with so many different people from so many demographics. She is involved in the engagement board along with various social and community events. Right now Hauser’s main focus outside of CSU is getting settled and exploring the area in and around Fort Collins.

Hauser has some hidden talents. She is a member of the Larimer Chorale, a foster dog mom and a certified piano tuner. If you would like to get to know Hauser a little better, take her for a coffee, as she is an “avid coffee lover.”

Hauser also enjoys the music of Florence Welch from Florence and The Machine, and listening to RadioLab and This American Life podcasts. When asked whom she would like to spend a mealtime with, Hauser immediately said, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I feel she is such a hero of the people and really says what she thinks. She is so smart and knowledgeable.”