Jeni Duro started at Western in 1997 as a part-time dishwasher in the Department of Biology. Today she is a Lab Technician who oversees preparation of materials, equipments, reagents and experimental organisms in laboratory classes for almost 1,000 students a year, in addition to providing basic technical support for several laboratories.

One nomination letter states, “It is obvious to me that her steadily increasing responsibility was a direct result of her strong respect for the job (no matter how tedious), respect for students (no matter how many) and respect for her own growth (no matter how challenging)”.

While she is described as competent and responsible, she is also known to enjoy learning new techniques and use of new equipment. With that, she is said to like showing these skills to others and clearly derives pleasure from helping students with individual projects.

Another nomination letter says she is hard working, dedicated to her work, well organized and a pleasure to work with. It goes on to say, “She makes all our lives easier by having everything in place at the appropriate time and all our lives better through the sheer force of her personality. She truly makes Western a great place to work.”

The Albanian native says while she appreciates others having a high opinion of her, she believes her co-workers are the ones who deserve the award.

“I was doing my job – nothing special,” says Duro. “I believe in my heart there are other people around me who deserve this recognition. These people are the ones who made it happen for me, they are my models. My winning, is their winning.”

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Contact Information

.: Scott May
Campus Communications Consultant
(519) 661-2111 x85466 or smay5@uwo.ca