This year’s outstanding student library employees all have the same thing common: what they love most about the Libraries is the people.

“It’s been one of the best, most welcoming workplace communities that I’ve been in, and I think that comes from the fact everybody here really wants to be here,” said Ryken Farr, a student assistant archivist at Andersen Library.

Since 1996, the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries’ awards committee has celebrated our student employees who exemplify excellence and make strong contributions to the Libraries.

The award is open to all student employees at the Libraries, regardless of position, experience, or responsibility. Each outstanding student employee receives a $500 award. This year’s winners are Gabriella Gitobu, Ryken Farr, and Amanda Lossef,

A welcoming place for everybody

Gabriella Gitobu is one of the first faces you’ll see at Wilson Library.

She’s a lead student worker in Access and Information Services. She manages the service desk, scans and checks out books, reshelves returned books, answers the phone, helps with research questions, and trains other student employees, “basically every process behind the scenes at the library,” she said.

Gitobu, from Burnsville, is a senior neuroscience major. She bounced between a few disciplines before settling on neuroscience, but even as a kid, she was interested in how people think. She used to scour National Geographic Kids magazines for facts about memory, illusion, and perception.

“I like learning about why people are the way they are,” she said. “Just that a lump of matter can create such physical reactions all the time is really cool to me.”

Neuroscience also combines two of her favorite subjects: computer science and psychology. After graduation, she plans to enroll in a two-year research program to study behavior and decision-making, and then continue into graduate school.

Gitobu studied in Walter and Magrath libraries every week, so when she needed to find a job, she thought working at the Libraries would be cool. Now it feels like a second home, a place where she makes friends, talks with her professors, and forms bonds with the library regulars.

“In a way, I feel like I’ve grown up here, even though it’s only been two years,” Gitobu said. “I feel like our supervisors are just very caring, supportive people. They truly want the best for us, and they’ve worked really hard to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere … It’s been one of the best work experiences I’ve had in my life.”

In addition to her regular duties, Gitobu joined the Libraries’ Student Advisory Board and has worked to make the Libraries more inclusive, said Alee Schmierer, a library assistant at Wilson Library.

Gitobu was quickly promoted to a lead worker position “because of her exceptional communication skills and reliability,” Schmierer explained. When one supervisor was busy helping a patron at the service desk, Gitobu decided to help out and answer the phones, even though she wasn’t scheduled to work.

“Gabby brings so much kindness, positivity, and bravery to her work, and these strengths will continue to bring her success in the future,” Schmierer said.

Her time at the Libraries taught her how to manage her time, motivated her to be curious about disciplines outside her major, and opened doors to new opportunities, like the Sexual Misconduct Prevention Program.

In her free periods, Gitobu makes gifts for her friends, paints and draws, and loves listening to music, mostly rock, hip hop, and classical. Recently she’s gotten back into swimming and playing piano, “anyway I can exercise my creativity,” she said, “because I feel like neuroscience can be very creative.”

“I really appreciate working here, because it’s such a good resource for everybody,” Gitobu said. “I really appreciate it being a welcoming space for everybody. I’ve seen a lot of unhoused people come and rest here, and I appreciate working in a place that allows for that and is accessible to everybody in that way.”

Giving people their stories back

Ryken Farr’s affinity for history sprung from a general interest in World War II, and when he learned about the Holocaust, he knew he wanted to help preserve the stories of the people who witnessed it.

Farr came to the university as a day-one history major, later adding minors in Jewish Studies, German, and Museum and Curatorial Studies. Through his coursework, he started reading about the displaced persons period, when millions of people, including more than 250,000 Jewish refugees, found themselves without a home to return to when WWII ended.

While this period has gained more academic attention in the past decade, it’s still a part of the story that isn’t often discussed.

“Helping fill this gap in the scholarship has given a deeper purpose behind my work. It’s more than just personal interest for me at this point. It’s helping to further the field. It’s helping to share and talk about people’s stories and their lived experience,” Farr said.

Farr is a student assistant archivist in the Upper Midwest Jewish Archives (UMJA) at the Libraries Archives and Special Collections, a position he’s held for the past year. He helps run the reading room and registration desk, pulling materials for classes and researchers.

The bulk of his work is processing materials for UMJA, distilling the chaos of new donations into uniform boxes with nice clean folders, organized by subject, Farr said. He also fields reference questions from researchers, and retrieves and returns archival materials from storage.

Farr helped fashion UMJA’s new exhibit, “Faith in the Press: Jewish Printing and Printers in the Twin Cities, 1890-1950,” which covers letterpress printers that made materials in Yiddish and Hebrew for the local Jewish community.

UMJA has a few collections about Holocaust survivors, so the position aligned with Farr’s research interests. And UMJA frequently collaborates with the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS), as well as Farr’s senior thesis advisor, Dr. Sheer Ganor.

Starting the summer before his sophomore year, Farr was a student worker with the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, where he worked on Minnesota Shoah Stories, an interdisciplinary project headed by UMJA and CHGS. The project collects the stories of Holocaust survivors who relocated to Minnesota, and compiles them into an online tool for educators and students.

Farr worked with UMJA Archivist Kate Dietrick to restore the story of Holocaust survivor Jeanette Frank, born Eugenia Lewin, who was presumed dead. Lewin spent years in a displaced persons camp, where she joined a community theater troupe.

Her scrapbook about the troupe ended up in UMJA’s care, and the team used it, as well as other materials, to show that Lewin and Frank were indeed the same person, that she survived the war, and that she immigrated to St. Paul, where she lived the rest of her life.

In response, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, updated their online database about the victims and survivors of the Holocaust to reflect the real story of her life.

“His research on the background of Jeanette Frank allowed us to clearly prove that Jeanette Frank was born Eugenia Lewin,” Dietrick said. “By doing this work, we have given a woman her life and legacy back. This literally would not have been done without Ryken’s steadfast research.”

“Personally that felt really great,” Farr said. “It was an impactful moment, a living archives moment.”

Farr has been given more responsibility than student workers are typically assigned because of his impeccable work, Dietrick said. He’s processed over 60 cubic feet of materials, more than double any student worker she’s overseen in her 13 years, and he even helped the team acquire the Torah ark from Agudas Achim in Two Harbors, Minnesota.

“Never before has a student been such an assistance with an acquisition,” she said. “I know he is a bright and driven future archivist, and I look forward to having him as a colleague in this profession in the future.”

Farr originally wanted to become a professor, but through working at the Libraries, he now has a different idea on how to use his history degree. He wants to work in archives and museums, where he can foster students and researchers at all levels, educate community members, work with professors, and still pursue his own research.

“It’s one of the reasons I decided to go into the profession, because everybody in this building [Andersen Library] is just awesome,” Farr said.

After graduation this semester, Farr is heading to the East Coast for a dual degree program, studying Archives in Public History at New York University, while getting his Master’s of Library and Information Science at Long Island University.

He loves the culture at Andersen Library the most, talking with the other archivists and curators, picking their brains about the profession, hearing about their research and new acquisitions. It’s a great place for history majors, he said.

“A lot of history majors don’t think about the archives at the undergraduate level, and I’d really like to challenge them to, because it’s a great way to boost studies and academic work,” Farr said. “You feel a lot more connected to whatever you’re studying. You can hold documents from it, read about people’s lived experiences in their own words, in papers they may have written themselves. It just makes everything feel more real.”

The craftsmanship of public health

Amanda Lossef is a senior majoring in psychology, but she isn’t planning a career in social work or counseling. Instead, she wants to use her knowledge of the human mind in a different care profession: dentistry.

“For dentistry, you can major in anything,” Lossef said. “I felt that studying psychology would help me to better understand people and develop my empathy.”

The dentist’s office isn’t the most popular place. It can be anxiety-inducing, with sharp instruments and intricate procedures, so dentists need to know how to communicate clearly and calm patients down.

Dentistry is, on the surface, a scientific field, but for Lossef, it’s as much an art form. Outside classes, she likes to draw with pastel and charcoal, sew clothing, and craft leather works like wallets and pocketbooks. And with the same hands, she looks forward to designing dentures, crowns, and restorations that not only promote oral health, but also look natural and aesthetically pleasing.

“I really appreciate the intricacy required in dentistry, the detail of that work, and the idea that I’ll be helping people while working with my hands,” Lossef said. “It’s exciting that I’ll get to combine my interests in art, craftsmanship, and working with people to improve their health, while acquiring a deeper knowledge of science and the human body.”

Craftsmanship is what drew her to the Health Science Library’s Makerspace and Virtual Reality Studio, where she’s worked for the past year. She introduces students to the various tools and resources in each space, answers questions, troubleshoots problems and equipment malfunctions, and even helps patrons with design, like making medical devices or sewing clothing.

“There’ll often be someone who walks in for the first time, and I get to welcome them in and give them a tour. And I’m always excited when people come in again, and I see their progress and growth. That’s my favorite part,” Lossef said.

Her favorite projects are medical-related, of course. Lossef has helped people use resin printers to make surgical guides for dentistry, and one researcher made replicas of human teeth from an archeological excavation. She’s also helped students design artificial joints, models of the pharynx, blood pressure cuffs, and an insulin pump holder for people with diabetes.

“It’s exciting to see how people can be creative with devices that improve the lives of people who have diseases or require medical treatments,” she said.

Lossef came to the university from Washington, D.C., where she grew up. She heard the people of Minnesota are very nice, “and I find that to be true,” she said. She was able to make friends through student groups, like the chess club and the pre-dental club, and also through the Makerspace.

She met another student who was majoring in apparel design, just as Lossef was finishing making a skirt and blouse at the Makerspace, and the two took a trip together to see commercial sewing machines in the Design School in St. Paul.

“It’s fun to find people to connect with who are also creative,” Lossef said. “The Libraries are really creative spaces. It’s pretty amazing that people can come here, and use these resources without an additional fee, and learn new skills.”

Steven Bleau, the Makerspace lab manager, said Lossef’s presence has helped transform the area into a community hub, turning a complex space into something that feels accessible to everyone.

In the first few months of her tenure, the Makerspace saw a net increase of 1,294 visitors compared to the same period the year prior. That 28 percent growth isn’t a coincidence, he said.

When Lossef attended a formal tour for the University’s Dental School, for example, she reflexively advocated for the Makerspace and VR Studio, and promoted the space and services to her fellow prospective students.

“What distinguishes Amanda is her ability to seamlessly integrate her academic journey with her role at the Libraries,” Bleau said. “It is this natural, almost instinctive drive to champion the library’s mission that makes her such a standout member of our team.”

After Lossef graduates this semester, she’s heading to New Jersey to attend the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine. She plans to become a general dentist, so she can see people of all ages and handle a wide variety of cases.

“I’m very grateful to my supervisors, my mentors in the Makerspace and VR Studio. They’re really kind people, and they’ve been very generous with their knowledge and in training me,” Lossef said.