College staff honored for first-CLASS service
Three staff members from the College of Liberal Arts named 2018 CLASS Award recipients.
By Haley Venglar ‘19
Every year, the College of Liberal Arts Superior Service (CLASS) Awards Program recognizes individuals who provide outstanding service to the college and demonstrate leadership, ingenuity, job excellence, and support for diversity. The college will honor Wendi Brewer, Kurt Felpel, and Rebekah Luza on December 7, 2018 at the college’s Staff Appreciation Luncheon.
Each honoree receives a $750 cash award and an engraved plaque.
Wendi Brewer
Wendi Brewer, a business administrator II who has worked for Texas A&M for eleven years, is honored to be selected as a CLASS recipient.
“Working for the College of Liberal Arts has been a wonderful experience that has provided me with opportunities I otherwise would have missed,” Brewer said. “I feel extremely honored to receive this award.”
Within the Department of Political Science, Brewer is responsible for the budget, supervising the business office and serves as the human resources liaison coordinator.
“My favorite thing about my job is being in a learning environment,” said Brewer. “The students, faculty, and staff are learning new things on a daily basis. The continual learning keeps us on our toes and encourages us to better ourselves both personally and professionally.”
Brewer is excited to be a part of a department that strives to help the College of Liberal Arts set the standard for colleges within Texas A&M.
Kurt Felpel, department programs manager for the Department of Economics, joined Texas A&M just over three years ago after 25 years of service in U.S. Army. Felpel is glad to be chosen as a CLASS recipient but feels that he is simply doing his job.
Kurt Felpel
Felpel said he is a jack of all trades within his department. Whether it is meeting with prospective high school students, managing the department web page, supervising staff, or handling data requests, Felpel does a little bit of everything.
“I feel like I am involved in just about everything that this department does,” Felpel said. “It’s a very satisfying feeling when a student tells me that they received an internship or job offer at an event that I organized.”
Felpel enjoys the unique atmosphere that the different departments within the College of Liberal Arts creates within a working environment.
“I enjoy the way that people from other departments share ideas and ways of doing things,” said Felpel. “Every department in the college is so different in many respects that no one solution can fit all of them so the sharing of ideas allows us to pick and choose which ones we want to implement in the Department of Economics.”
Rebekah Luza, a business coordinator III for the Department of Anthropology, is responsible for budgeting and accounting, administering contracts and grants, and coordinating travel and purchases.