Kayce Fuentes makes it four.
A second-year M.S.Ed. student in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education, Fuentes is the 2022 recipient of the NASPA Region IV-E Graduate Student Rising Star (Illinois) Award and the fourth consecutive Huskie chosen for the annual honor.
Her selection acknowledges her demonstrated excellence in the classroom as well as her leadership and innovation in her graduate assistantship.
She will receive her plaque during the weekend of Nov. 6 at the NASPA IV-WE Joint Regional Conference in Chicago.
For Fuentes, graduate hall director of Gilbert Hall, the recognition is unexpected, appreciated and validating.
“I came from a very large high school and a very small undergraduate institution, so I really never thought I would be recognized at any large level,” says Fuentes, a native of Homer Glen who earned her bachelor’s degree at Millikin University.
Coming to the NIU College of Education, she adds, “I actually had no experience in housing and was conditionally accepted into the Higher Education and Student Affairs program.”
Undeterred, “I had made a commitment to myself that, with whatever experiences grad school brought me, I would try my best,” she says. “I am incredibly humbled to see that work pay off with this honor.”
Lauren Teso-Warner, director of Residential Life at NIU, calls Fuentes “a leader among her peers” who “embraces academic work, has a willingness to engage in conversations and has a genuine passion and excitement for serving students.”
Proof is found in the positive differences Fuentes made during her work last year as graduate hall director for Northern View Community.
That included helping staff “understand the unique identities of residents living in our on-campus apartments,” Teso-Warner says.
“Managing a community with both traditional and non-traditional students and students with families is no easy task,” she says. “Kayce did not prescribe to previous notions that our residents living in our apartments did not want to be engaged in a thriving community and challenged her staff to think of new and innovative ways to make connections.”
She then served as a role model for “the same behavior by realizing she could not work with her students solely from her office,” she adds. “She showed up through programs, connecting directly and individually with students and quickly addressing resident concerns.”
One of the students Fuentes supervised followed that example, Teso-Warner says, “and found unique ways to engage with his own residents, which led to him being named Community Advisor of the Year in our department.”
Not bad for someone who hadn’t planned on this career.
When Fuentes enrolled at Millikin, she set her sights on social work but quickly discovered another passion after joining the Residence Hall Association and getting a taste of student affairs.
Graduating with a degree in Human Services and Spanish, she took a job with the Illinois Student Assistance Commission as a community worker, serving as a liaison between high school seniors, high school guidance counselors and college admissions counselors.
Explaining the FAFSA and the ins-and-outs of financial aid while also helping students to apply for that money and for college admission inspired her continue her own education.
Her goal now is to become a director of student housing and residential life or, as she has said, “the next Lauren Teso-Warner.”
“I am extremely grateful to have supportive leadership and mentorship from my supervisors and my instructors,” Fuentes says. “Receiving this award lets me know I am exactly where I need to be and that I am on the right path.”
