With less than a year of experience, Michael Salmon has already gained his first award by being named the Staff of the Month by the University of Idaho Staff Council.
As a transfer enrollment specialist in the Office of the Registrar, Salmon’s main role is to help students transfer to UI. Salmon said his goal is to help students make the transition to the university as smooth as possible.
Salmon said he knows the difficulties that come with moving well. His father was in the Air Force, so his family lived in Virginia, Florida, California, England and Japan — just to name a few.
“I was a military brat, so I moved around every two years or so,” Salmon said. “But I moved to Moscow while I attended school here from 2004 through 2009.”
After finishing his education at UI, Salmon decided to stay in Pullman in 2011. He said he prefers the Moscow-Pullman area more than anywhere else he’s lived because he has family on the West Coast. He also has several friends in the area and said he enjoys the overall atmosphere of the community.
“I really prefer the smaller town atmosphere,” Salmon said. “Which that tends to get lost in bigger cities.”
Before getting a job at UI, Salmon worked at The Breakfast Club for several years. It wasn’t until a friend informed him of an opening at the Office of the Registrar when he decided to apply for a job on campus, he said.
“My friend worked in the registrar’s office for a while, and when an opening came up he wanted us to work together,” Salmon said. “I applied and got the job, but then he left two weeks later.”
Salmon said he wanted to work at UI after he graduated. Since then, he has exceled and received the nomination for the Staff of the Month award from his supervisor, Rebecca Frost.
“I was out of the office for the day,” Frost said. “But when I came back I had a voicemail from a young lady who called to specifically compliment Michael on the way he handled a more difficult transfer issue.”
Frost said when students transfer schools there are some things that don’t transfer correctly like credits. When she was in college, she said transferring credits was difficult, and it helped to work with dedicated employees to ease the process along. That is why staff like Salmon are important.
“It’s very important to me that my staff takes the time to work with the students and make sure that they get the best service they can,” Frost said. “And I was really happy to hear that about Michael, because what he does is not easy.”
Salmon said he appreciated receiving the Staff of the Month award because it encourages him to keep moving forward with the work he enjoys.
“It’s really nice to know that I did, and am doing a good job helping the students who decide to come to UI,” Salmon said.
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected]