Utah State University Announces Annual Diversity Award Recipients

Five individuals will receive the 2011-12 Utah State University Diversity Awards. This year’s recipients include Guy Denton, Karin de Jonge-Kannan, Vanessa Garcia, Isaac Allred and Lucille F. Hansen. 

The awards recognize individuals on campus and in communities served by USU who have made significant contributions to affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity.

Guy Denton

Guy Denton, vice chancellor, USU Eastern San Juan Campus, is recognized in the category of administrator.

He was active in encouraging understanding of Muslims following September 11, 2001, inspiring compassion in those inclined to lash out.  Denton spent four years in Somalia to develop a curriculum for a two-year USU Agricultural Diploma for Extension and helped train Somalia Extension agents in agricultural mechanization. He indicated that Somalia was his “training ground” in diversity, as he learned respect for different views and different peoples.

As USU International Programs Director, Denton supervised agricultural projects in Ecuador, Nepal, Egypt, Somalia, the Philippines and The Gambia. He said he learned to appreciate and love the various peoples he worked with.

As Executive Director of USU Uintah Basin, Denton increased the success of students of the Ute Tribe by building a relationship with the Ute Tribe education director and working with the Tribe to develop successful proposals for the Teacher Education Grant, Upward Bound Grant and several smaller grants. He incorporated the Tribe’s student funding into USU’s scholarship program, with tuition and fees paid directly by the Tribe, and developed a tutoring program for USU courses taught on the reservation.

As Vice Chancellor of the USU Eastern San Juan Campus, he has developed programs to better serve the Native American population in the Four Corners region. Among his accomplishments at the San Juan campus is the reorganization of the scholarship program to offer top Indian high school students full-ride scholarships; written and won a Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institution (NASNTI) five-year grant to build an academic early alert system for Indian students; and developed Allied Health Medical programs for the campus, which has successfully graduated its first cohort of nine Navajo women, all of whom are employed in the medical workforce in the region.

Karin de Jonge-Kannan

Karin de Jonge-Kannan, senior lecturer in the Languages, Philosophy and Speech Education Department, is recognized in the area of faculty.

Having lived in the Netherlands, France, Mexico, China, India and now the United States, she understands the challenges of cross-cultural adjustment and frequently shares her personal experiences in helping others. She has mentored close to 100 USU graduate students from nine countries and often hosts international scholars at USU. She hosted five last year and at least four this year and works to enable them to attend functions, engage in structured activities and make connections both at USU and in the community.

De Jonge-Kannan participated in the planning and organizing of “Educators for Diversity” in 2003-05, which has grown into the Utah chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education. She has always been, and continues to be, a strong supporter of study abroad and language learning. She has received several grants that provided funding for activities and experiences to enhance relations among different cultures. For example, last summer a grant brought students from all over the world for an eight-week course focused on language, ecology and sustainability. Another recent grant she co-wrote was funded by the Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs in the U.S. State Department which brought 21 secondary-level teachers from around the world to Utah State in fall 2011. General and discipline-specific workshops were held, and the visiting teachers were placed in local schools for internships and participated in various cultural excursions.

De Jonge-Kannan said she constantly looks for ways to enhance her experiences and provide diversity-related experience to others. She does this through organizing university activities, volunteering at Global Village and with international fundraisers, hosting scholars, writing grants that have celebrated diversity at their very core and working one-on-one with individuals at USU who come from different backgrounds.

Vannessa Garcia

Vannessa Garcia, a recruitment specialist in the Admissions Office, is recognized in the category of staff.

Garcia has been the keystone in all of the multicultural events sponsored by the Admissions Office. An example is Diversity Days, a longstanding program designed to provide under-represented minority high school students with information, exposure and experiences of college life at USU. Her efforts with the students involved in the program have truly made it a success beyond what has been seen in the past.

She conceptualized and implemented a leadership conference geared towards Hispanic juniors and seniors in high school to encourage them to pursue higher education. She incorporated opportunities for students to take the ACT as well as apply for scholarships while attending. The conference has become one of the most anticipated events hosted by Admissions.

Additionally, Garcia played a crucial part in the inception and execution of The Latino Family Day and The Latino Initiative. Both programs seek to involve the Latino community at large and assist students through various stages of education to encourage them to continue on to higher education while providing assistance in obtaining the resources to do so.

Garcia advises the Multicultural Recruitment Council, a group of student leaders who go into the community and represent USU. All of these programs seek out and help prepare students for higher education. 

“Since Vannessa has taken the lead for multicultural recruitment at Utah State, minority student enrollment jumped 26 percent overall,” her diversity award nominator said.

Isaac Allred

Isaac Allred, undergraduate student in the USU Asian Studies Program, is recognized in the student category.

During the summer of 2010, Allred spent two months in China where he was not only immersed in the Chinese culture but became very good friends with people from numerous countries.  Living in international housing, he became friends with Egyptians, Mongolians and numerous other nationalities. Also during that summer, because of his Chinese language skills he was asked to teach English to graduate and undergraduate students at Norwest Agriculture and Forestry University.

He has used his language skills to teach others. He taught Chinese to a graduate research student and his wife to help them prepare for their research in Western China. Allred was also the head resident facilitator and administrative assistant for 50 high school students attending the BYU Chinese Startalk 2011, an intensive four-week curriculum for motivated high school students.  Additionally, he served as an interpreter in summer 2011 for the U.S.-China 2011 Conference in Salt Lake City.

Allred is the LDS Student Association international vice president. In this role he often helps organize activities that promote diversity on USU’s campus and assists other organizations with events on campus.He and his committee have volunteered for Tip Toe into Asia, Polynesian Luau, Global Picnic, Latino Student Union Soccer Tournament and Indian Student Union Festival of Lights. The last two years he has organized the LDS Student Association International Talent Show and World Expo where in December 2011, more than 600 people attended the free event and more than 15 countries were represented.

Lucille F. Hansen

Lucille F. Hansen is recognized in the community category.

Hansen is recognized for her long and continuous service to the community at large as a member of the Concert & Lecture Series Committee for the Logan Tabernacle. She has been directly responsible for organizing the Noon Music Series and the Christmas Series for the past 10 years. During this time she has scheduled, planned and conducted some 840 programs, with more than 350,000 people attending and thousands of performers participating.

The purpose of the Concert & Lecture Series Committee has been to bring diverse religious, civic, school and entertainment groups together in the belief that unity of such groups is vital to the well-being of the community. By engaging in cultural and educational activities, community togetherness and respect for religious and cultural diversity has increased.

Bringing the five valley high school choirs together for joint programs in the Tabernacle has allowed each choir to perform individual numbers and then join together in a 350-plus voice choir under the direction of a notable conductor for a final number.

Hansen can frequently be found attending services of the various faiths in the community. She is well known and respected in the many congregations and has had frequent involvement with the various faith leaders. The Westminster Bell Choir, an interfaith Easter Cantata, the Messiah performances and other community choirs and programs have come forth as a result of her involvement in diverse congregations in the community.

Contact: David L. Ottley, USU Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity director, (435) 797-1266,  dave.ottley@usu.edu