By TENA L. COOK, CSC MARKETING COORDINATOR
CHADRON – Laure Sinn, Sandoz Center Program Coordinator, received the Frontline Employee Award of the Year from the Northwest Nebraska Tourism at its annual banquet at the Dawes County Fairgrounds April 20.
Sinn has been with CSC for 29 years in various roles, including Student Activities Coordinator and Rangeland Center Program Coordinator. She has worked at the Sandoz Center for approximately four years.
“I believe once you're on campus, you're part of everything,” Sinn said. “Anytime somebody walks in, I welcome them, ask where they're from, and what they'd like to see. Then I get something going for them. I can tell them about other places downtown or in the region. I ask what connection they have to the campus. They will tell you if they are an alum or made a donation. Sometimes they notice an exhibit and tell me it was part of their family then call their family to tell them. We hope their relatives will stop at the Center as part of their vacation, too.”
While some Sandoz Center guests come specifically to see a certain exhibit, some are just passing through.
“Either way, they feel comfortable and that is one of the reasons they come back. It's neat we see all these folks, whether they're here for vacation, just cruising around, or here for homecoming. They'll stop by because I like to make this place super welcoming,” Sinn said. “We have people get super excited about the history that happened here.”
Earlier this spring, the Sandoz Center hosted a large group of Saint Agnes Academy fourth, fifth-grade students, teachers, and parents from Alliance during a campus visit that also included a planetarium show, a talk about fossils, and a hike.
“They loved it, and I got some really cool thank you notes from some of the kids. It was super cool because they said they were never interested in coming to a museum, but since they had such a good time here, they're going to come back and bring their families,” Sinn said. “That's what I like to do,”
Sinn said her goal is to have all kinds of information available in the Center for visitors.
“If a guest asks me a question and I don't know the answer, it'll take me probably 30 seconds to find out. I like to know exactly what's going on so I read a lot, ask a lot of questions, and do a lot of research,” she said.
Sinn has hosted interns from the Upward Bound program, and helped organize exhibits and artist demonstrations at the Center.