Maya Langford was awarded the 2025 Student Employee of the Year award at BYU. Caleb Nelson was named the second-place recipient, and Berkeley Perschon Kenney placed third.
As a current office coordinator and student instructor for the For the Strength of Youth office at BYU, Langford has been tasked with planning, scheduling and executing various projects over the past two years. While the summer is filled with fun involvement with youth, the semesters leading up to it are packed with preparation.
Langford has been one of the most prominent leaders of this new program. One of her main projects has been creating the onboarding program for student employees.
The onboarding program will provide students and employees with a training pathway to understand the logistics and details of FSY before summer.
“FSY is still fairly new, so there’s still a lot of things that we’re learning and improving,” Lanford said.
Ryan Bradshaw, Langford’s supervisor, nominated her for the award after noticing her dedication to creating lasting changes to the FSY program.
“The impact she’s had on our program has been almost unquantifiable,” Bradshaw said. “She took a really confusing student job and crafted a meaningful experience for the student employees without any extra pay or title.”
Bradshaw also noted that in all his time working at BYU, he has never seen a student employee take as much initiative as Langford. However, Langford credits the success of the program as a team effort.
“I think what makes an outstanding employee is someone that is a team player,” she said.
Going into FSY’s fourth summer, Langford’s onboarding curriculum will be utilized to train incoming employees.
Caleb Nelson, the second-place recipient, works as a legal project assistant at the Office of General Counsel. Since starting a year ago, Nelson has drafted legal documents, conducted legal research and filed court documents.
When he began the position, Nelson performed basic tasks such as reviewing archival records. However, he received more responsibilities after inheriting a former coworker's duties.
“It’s given me an opportunity to do real legal work,” Nelson said. “I wanted something that would help me gain a skillset and experience that was relevant to my career path.”
Nelson also notes how his professional approach has helped him advance in the position.
“If you act like a professional, then people will treat you like a professional,” he said. “I think the best employees are those who treat their position as a real job, they’re invested, and they contribute to the team.”
There is no question that Nelson has put his everything into his position as a student employee at BYU. Going forward, he hopes to apply the skills learned to a future in the legal field.
Berkeley Perschon Kenney, the third-place recipient, has worked to help students find their purpose at BYU as an exploration specialist. Meeting with over 200 students one-on-one, Perschon Kenney has advised students on career exploration.
This position has been a full circle for Perschon, as her arrival at BYU was filled with uncertainty.
“When I first got to BYU I was super lost,” she said. “I had just transferred here from Salt Lake Community College and I lacked a lot of the resources that I needed to succeed.”
When Perschon Kenney saw the position at Exploration Point, she recognized the opportunity to connect students to the resources they needed to find their purpose.
“As a student, I had needed those resources myself in order to thrive at the university,” she said.
By giving back to students at BYU, Perschon Kenney has empowered students over the past two years. Though she will graduate in April, she hopes to return to an advising role in the future.
Along with these nominees and recipients, Brigham Young University will continue to celebrate student employees from Mar. 10 through 14.