Meder earns 2019-2020 Award for Excellence

NC State Student Media Editorial Adviser Ellen Meder received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence for 2019-2020.

Meder is one of five staff members from the Division of Academic and Student Affairs who won the award, which is the most prestigious honor NC State bestows upon non-faculty employees. Meder, who was nominated in the Human Relations category, received the award at DASA’s virtual year-end celebration May 13.

In addition to her work advising the Technician, Nubian Message and Roundabout, nominators emphasized Meder’s leadership in spearheading Technician’s 100th anniversary celebration weekend, held Jan. 31-Feb. 2, as well as helping members of the Technician staff put together a 100-page retrospective looking back at the paper’s first century of service.

“The event simply couldn’t have gone any better,” wrote Director of Student Media Advising Patrick Neal. “Everyone from the Chancellor on down has been raving about both the celebration and the 100th anniversary publication, and our alumni are engaged and energized at a level unprecedented in Technician’s history.”

“We’ve heard rave reviews from alumni who attended, those who wished they’d attended after hearing about its success, advertisers, students, and staff,” wrote Business and Marketing Manager Zanna Swann. “The event would not have been the caliber it was or received the results it did without Ellen.”

“Ellen leaves a positive impact on all of the students who work here, and those of us lucky enough to have worked closely with her will no doubt find greater success upon graduation because of her,” Technician Editor-In-Chief Dan Gilliam and Managing Editor Rachael Davis wrote in their nomination.

In addition to drawing nearly 400 alumni and friends of Technician back to NC State for the 100th anniversary weekend, the celebration promises to benefit Technician in perpetuity through the formation of the Technician Century Leadership Fund. To date, alumni and friends of Technician have pledged more than $33,000 to the fund, which will help support conference travel and other leadership development efforts for staff of the publication.

Meder holds a degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and worked as a multimedia journalist for both the Florence (S.C.) Morning News and WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, S.C., before joining the NC State Student Media Staff in September of 2014.