Our outstanding SCYP Manager, Megan Banks, is officially one of the University of Oregon’s top employees.
Megan was one of five Officers of Administration recognized at the Outstanding Employee Awards ceremony. The honorees are chosen each year on the basis of building community, demonstrating leadership, promoting inclusivity, and exemplifying the mission of the University of Oregon.
Megan’s work is about building community and working with an extremely diverse set of people across campus. As Program Manager of the Sustainable City Year Program, Megan annually matches 25-30 existing university courses and their professors to community-defined project areas in one Oregon community over that year. She often works with faculty in five UO Schools (Business, Law, College of Arts and Sciences, Design, and Journalism) to achieve an outcome that is much bigger than any individual part. Megan coordinates with this diverse group with grace, patience, and an eye to adding value to UO classes and partner projects. This is incredibly difficult to do, especially in a way that delivers high levels of value to faculty, their students, and to the community partner. The satisfaction of the community partner is ultimately what allows SCYP to continue year to year.
Through her work, Megan has helped build a community of faculty who identify as SCYP contributors and engage with one another because of the conduit Megan has provided. The 500+ students who participate in the program annually also identify with this larger program community and describe SCYP as one of the most important academic and professional experiences they have at the UO.
“Megan is a force to be reckoned with.” says Kerry Edinger, SCYP Graduate Employee. “She never loses her drive to keep juggling all of the moving parts that come with the current year’s partnership and getting the next one set up. Lucky for us, she does it all with grace and humor!”
Megan is a constant among all of the purposeful chaos that happens within SCI. She connects with each individual on a personal level, leads through her professional examples, gives people moments of laughter with her sarcastic wit, and helps everyone in the organization feel connected to something larger than themselves. Megan’s job description has no requirement for this larger community building function, but she has taken it upon herself to ensure this aspect of organizational life is a core part of everyone’s experience.
“Megan is such a fantastic part of SCI and her efforts really do span from mentoring individual students to helping communities across Oregon achieve their local goals faster, better, and with less political friction,” says SCI Co-Director Marc Schlossberg. “It is great to have the University of Oregon recognize Megan’s excellence as it’s something we see every day”.
We’re incredibly proud of Megan’s achievements and know she will continue to be a force for good at SCI, UO, and across Oregon. Congratulations Megan!