Bianca Nakid Filaskoski is an international student from Brazil who is in the final semester of her degree in neuroscience at СƬƵ. Since her sophomore year, she has also been a student employee in the Education Abroad division of the Office of Global Education.
Recently, she was honored with the Sunshine & Positivity Award, an award from Career Exploration & Development given as part of Student Employee Appreciation Week. The prestigious award recognizes a hard-working individual who always brightens the day of others while also practicing effective work habits and acting in the interest of the larger community. The winner is selected through a competitive review process each spring semester.
Bianca’s work mainly involves assisting with the СƬƵ Florence education abroad program and helping the Education Abroad Advisors with projects and events. She highlighted why she likes working in this office, explaining that “I like that I have contact with people of various different backgrounds here. My coworkers are very caring and all of the advisors are very helpful. It is just a very nice and welcoming environment to work in.”
Bianca was excited to receive the Sunshine & Positivity Award and talked about her initial reaction to receiving it. “I was very surprised because I didn’t expect [to earn it]. I was also very happy that my coworkers would think of me in that way.”
This award, to Bianca, “Means that my work is being recognized, along with the recognition that people find me to be pleasing to work with. Sometimes, I am afraid of being misunderstood (especially considering the language barriers that I face), but it’s good that they understand and like me.”
The Education Abroad team greatly enjoys having Bianca as a student employee in the office. Assistant Director Kristina Bullard emphasized, “Bianca is the very definition of sunshine and positivity. She approaches each of her projects with enthusiasm, creativity and attention to detail, no matter how tedious or expansive the project may be. In her role, Bianca works diligently to achieve the outcomes that the Education Abroad team is looking for, and ultimately always goes above and beyond what is expected, always with a smile on her face.”
