Curt Lynch, a junior computer engineering major from Dyersburg, was named the Spring 2024 Beth Maloan Outstanding UT Martin Student Employee Award winner at a student employee luncheon on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin.
Lynch is a teaching assistant in the Math Learning Center through the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, where he has worked since the Fall 2022 semester.
“He is a tutor, and he is brilliant,” said Dr. Steve Elliott, the interim chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. “He is also calm, and when you’re working with people and trying to teach them math – a lot of people struggle with math and have anxiety about math.
“Curt is a calming presence when he works with students and faculty – with anybody with anything. He worked for many years managing fast-food restaurants, and he deals with customers and employees and manages to handle all that calmly.”
Elliott added that Lynch takes the initiative on a lot of things.
“He volunteered to visit GENS 101 sections to advertise the Math Learning Center,” he said. “That was his idea. Nobody said, ‘Hey, Curt, go do this.’ He came up with that.
“He also wrote a piece of software for us to track attendance in the Math Learning Center and, again, it was his idea.”
The Beth Maloan Outstanding Student Employee Award recognizes the UTM student employee with outstanding job performance, a strong commitment to the university and the initiative to go above and beyond the job requirements.
Given in honor and memory of longtime employee and student advocate Beth Maloan, the award is presented each fall and spring and includes a $1,000 cash award as well as an engraved plaque.
To be eligible for this award, the student must have been employed on campus for a minimum of one year, must be a full-time undergraduate, and must carry a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.5.
The recipient is selected based on problem-solving and decision-making skills, dependability, interpersonal skills and communication, teamwork, customer service, productivity, self-motivation and on- and off-campus working relationships.
PHOTO: Curt Lynch (left), a junior computer engineering major from Dyersburg, was named the winner of the 2024 Beth Maloan Outstanding UT Martin Student Employee Award at a banquet held for student employees on April 10. Standing with Lynch are Maloan’s daughter, Jennifer Stroh of the UTM Office of Campus Recreation, and Stroh’s father, Mike Maloan, the chancery court judge for Weakley and Obion counties.
