Mount Mary college admissions director and St. Norbert College alum, Rachel Gonnering, receives national recognition

From Mount Mary College, December 7, 2011
by Susan Shimshak, shimshas@mtmary.edu, (414) 256-1221

Rachel Gonnering, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Mount Mary College, received two awards from the National Communication Association (NCA), President Eileen Schwalbach announced today. Gonnering received "Top Panel Award" and "Top Student Award" for her paper, "Training Student Employees to Effectively Apply Customer Service Principles to their Positions of Employment in Higher Education," which was presented at the NCA's 97th Annual Convention held November 17-20 in New Orleans. She co-authored the paper with Becky Mulane, Student Success Advisor at UW-Sheboygan.

The paper offered recommendations that were compiled into a guide, titled Student Employee Recommendations for Vocational Interactions with Customers in Education, (SERVICE). The guide included information on how to recruit and retain appropriate students, cross-train, create a team-focused environment, understand the customer, provide incentives, and obtain feedback and evaluations.

Gonnering received her B.A. in Communication from St. Norbert College and her M.A. in Communication from UW-Milwaukee. She has been employed at Mount Mary College since 2008.

The NCA serves over 8,000 communication scholars, teachers and practitioners nationally and internationally. Its mission is to advance and promote the importance of communication in both public and private life. More information on NCA can be found at http://www.natcom.org.