Meet the Student Employee of the Year

Elizabeth McClure ’20 noticed one of her student employees in Monson Dining Center looked pale and like she could faint. She immediately reorganized the dining tasks so the student didn’t have to work her shift and could go home with the help of her friends. As a student manager, she remembered an instance her freshman year when she thought she might faint herself, and her manager had walked her back to her dorm. “I think it’s really kind of crazy the things that can happen when you’re working with large groups of students,” McClure says. 

McClure began working in the Dining Center at Bethel during the fall of her freshman year. Now a senior, she’s kept the job ever since. For her outstanding work, she received Bethel’s 2020 Student Employee of the Year award from the President’s Cabinet. “Lizzy (McClure) has often had to be able to think on her feet through problem solving and wise decision-making. She has grown in her ability and confidence as a leader,” Student Employee Supervisor David Walden says. McClure said she is shocked to receive the award. “I feel really blessed,” she says. 

McClure is pursuing an individualized major with a focus on social welfare studies. Through her studies at Bethel, she is preparing to go into missions after graduating this May. During the summer she plans to go to North Africa through an internship with Calvary Church in Roseville. Following her internship, she hopes to do long term missions work with Ardeo Global and GoCorps.

Applying the skills she’s learned working in the Dining Center at Bethel to her future makes McClure think of Paul in the Bible, who was a tent maker in order to earn his living while spreading the Gospel. McClure gained experience with hands-on capabilities, picking up new tasks and ways of doing things, and the ability to lead 5 to 25 students. “All of those things are going to come in really handy,” McClure says.

With 150 student workers supporting Dining Services at Bethel, McClure values her team. “I really couldn’t do anything without my team,” says McClure. “I might be getting this award, but I wouldn’t be getting this award without them.” During finals week at Bethel, the Dining Center serves late night pizza and breakfasts to students. McClure’s team wore shirts saying, “Team Nap” on them. The team name came from an inside joke from when her team worked long shifts in August to serve the athletes, resident assistant teams, and early arrival students. One person just joked that they needed a team nap. For McClure, the fun name is “a reminder that we all stand together through thick or thin, high energy moments or low energy moments, on or off the job.”

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