President's Student Employee of the Year Award
President's Student Employee of the Year Award
The President's Student Employee of the Year Award is given annually to an outstanding student employee who has made a positive impact on the University and has demonstrated an exceptional quality of work and commitment to the University’s purpose and core values.
Congratulations to the 2025 Student Employee of the Year Award recipients!
The winner receives a certificate and an award of $1,000, sponsored by the Office of the President. The UT Austin winner is entered in the national competition sponsored by the National Student Employment Association (NSEA).
In addition, ten nominees are chosen as finalists and will receive an award of $250, sponsored by Texas Career Engagement.
Who is Eligible for Nomination?
Only students employed in hourly-paid non-academic and academic student jobs as well as Resident Assistants are eligible for this award. The Graduate School oversees awards for salaried Graduate Academic student employees.
Additionally, only student employees who are assigned to work approximately 240 hours between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025 are eligible for nomination.
Nomination Guidelines
Any staff or faculty member can nominate an eligible student employee for an award.
Award recipients are selected based on the quality of the nomination, and not on the quantity of nominations they receive. Nominations selected for an award will provide specific details about the student nominee and address how they have exceeded expectations and demonstrated an exceptional quality of work.
The Student Employee of the Year and finalists will be notified in March. They will be formally recognized in April as a part of National Student Employee Appreciation Week!
2025 President’s Student Employee of the Year Award Winner
Congratulations to Danielle Zaleski, recipient of The University of Texas at Austin 2025 President’s Student Employee of the Year Award!
Danielle is a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Geological Sciences; and she is an Undergraduate Research Assistant for the Institute for Geophysics. In her role, she has worked on a collaborative project with the City of Austin’s Quantification and Correlation of Sediment Microplastics and Nutrients with Population Density in Austin’s Waterways. While working on the project she was also able to maintain working in multiple sediment and photo labs and spearheaded a group poster submission on a microplastics project for Jackson School of Geosciences’ (JSG) Student Research Symposium. Most notably due to her work and environmental nature of the project, microplastics in Austin’s lakes will impact the larger Austin community. The university can now better understand the distribution and dynamics of microplastics, a potentially life harmful pollutant, as a direct result of her work. Danielle is an exceptional student and truly understands that the core purpose of the university is to transform lives for the benefit of society.