On Sept. 1 five long-time Metro State employees received the prestigious Distinguished Service Award at Fall Convocation. The award is the highest honor the college can bestow on an employee.

The five awardees for 2004 are: Jonathan Kent, professor of anthropology; Kishore Kulkarni, professor of economics; Larry Langton, professor of English; Nancy Maierhofer, CAPP coordinator for the Office of the Registrar; and Skip Crownhart, associate director for Academic Advising. The awards are based on nominations from Metro State colleagues and are selected by the Distinguished Service Award Committee of the Faculty Senate.

"When I've walked by the gallery of past recipients (on the second floor between the West and Central Classrooms), I never imagined I would be among them," says Anthropology's Jonathan Kent. "This was a nice surprise."

Kent, who has taught archaeology at Metro State for 18 years, has developed the college's archaeology field school, giving students hands-on experience surveying sites that include the Santa Rita B project in Peru and the Bradford-Perley House Historical Archaeology Field School in Jefferson County. This fall students will tackle a new project surveying a property that belonged to the Rocky Mountain News' first typesetter circa 1880. "I thought being an archaeologist was the best job in the world," says Kent, "and then I started teaching. And I liked it even better than the best job in the world."

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Economics Professor Kishore Kulkarni is no stranger to awards. A Metro State faculty member for 15 years, he has been named both Outstanding Researcher/Scholar and Outstanding Teacher by the Metro Chapter of the Golden Key International Honour Society. And since 1997 when the School of Business launched its Outstanding Contributions in Professional Development award, it's gone to Kulkarni.

A voluminous writer, Kulkarni is the author of 70 journal articles and five books, and he is the founder and chief editor of the internationally refereed "Indian Journal of Economics and Business." He has also been an active member of Metro's Faculty Senate and served as chair of the Economics Department. In nominating Kulkarni, Professor of Economics Steven T. Call wrote, "his service contributions to students, colleagues, the college community, his profession and the broader community are unique for a Metro professor. He is a most fitting and worthy candidate for the Distinguished Service Award."

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English Professor Larry Langton, Metro State's resident expert on the 17th-century English poet John Milton has made institutional service a hallmark of his 24-year Metro State career. As the faculty sponsor for the English honor society Sigma Tau Delta, he coaches students to present papers at the society's annual conference, an exercise resulting in two to four Metro students presenting papers each year. He has been a stalwart contributor to the English Department, serving on the hiring committee, curriculum committee and on many task forces. College-wide he has worked as the faculty assistant to the president of Metro State and in that role facilitated the North Central Association self-study committee in the late '80s and then in the mid-'90s helped with the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences North Central self-study. He has also been a faculty senator and member of numerous college committees.

Langton has distinguished himself as a scholar as well. In 1988, he was selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar for the Institute on Milton, plus he has taken his scholarship on the road, presenting after-play symposia on Shakespeare for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

"In English, when we seek quality and commitment," wrote English Professor Sandra Doe in her nomination letter, "when we want someone to lead us, but not tell us what to do, we call on Larry Langton."

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After four years of data input that included a mountain of college catalogs, faculty and staff training and system testing, Nancy Maierhofer became the de facto CAPP Queen.

Curriculum, Advising and Program Planning (CAPP), the portion of the Banner software system that's used for advising and degree audits, is a critical tool for determining a student's academic status and Maierhofer was key to making it happen. Last year, Maierhofer helped enhance the system further through her involvement with WebCAPP, the new Web-based CAPP product. Metro State is one of the few "Banner-enabled" institutions to make such potent use of CAPP, from advising to degree granting across the disciplines.

Maierhofer, who began her career at Metro 27 years ago as a transfer credit evaluator, plans to retire in 2005. "I feel very honored," she says. "When I look back at the list of prior winners, I feel very honored to be added to that list."

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Now an associate director for Academic Advising, Skip Crownhart's history with Auraria began 20 years ago when she developed a centralized international studies program for all three institutions. Eventually she was asked to decentralize those same services, but in doing so, she ensured that all three Auraria schools could provide international education opportunities for their students.

Officially Crownhart began working at Metro 13 years ago. Not only has she brokered student exchange agreements with schools in Ghana, Mexico, Togo, Germany, England, Australia and beyond, she also has helped students who may never have considered studying abroad to experience learning in another country.

Internally Crownhart has helped on the Black History Month Planning Committee, the African American Affairs Council, the International Education Task Force and the President's Committee on Cultural Diversity, among others. She also founded Metro's World Friendship Festival.

Beyond institutional borders, Crownhart has developed multicultural training programs for K-12 teachers and worked to expose high school students to global study. She has been very involved with NAFSA and SEITAR, the major professional organizations in the international education field as well as NACADA, a national organization that supports student advisors.

Crownhart, who received a Fulbright Administrator's Award, "is an individual of great integrity whose actions are consistent with her words," writes Maureen P. Lancaster, director of the Center for Individualized Learning. "She does not give up in the face of adversity, but draws on her commitment to intercultural understanding and access and opportunity for all to keep going over the span of many years."