ABOVE ALL, LOVE FOR OTHERS: Netsu Tegene is a familiar face in the Cafe and part of HPU's top-ranked dining experience.

• Position: INSPIRING ENVIRONMENT: #SQUADGOALS

It's 10:30 a.m. and the morning rush inside the Slane Student Center is slowing down. Netsu Tegene tidies up her workspace. She wants everything to be just right when students arrive for lunch.

She greets everyone warmly as she swipes their HPU Passport cards, welcoming them into the Cafe, a popular dining location on campus.

The atmosphere is upbeat and welcoming. Live music plays throughout the dining room and the staff, dressed in purple, serve up a delicious, wholesome variety of food to their guests.

Tegene is one of the many caring faces students meet at HPU. She sees them daily as they enjoy meals with friends, fuel up for practice or a game, or grab a bite between classes. Her smile lets them know this is home and they're family.

She started working in the Cafe six years ago. She ran a cafeteria in Ethiopia, her home country, and considered opening her own restaurant after moving to the United States. But HPU felt like home and she stayed.

Tegene gets to know the students, and the students know her too.

For Will Elliott, a sophomore from Overland Park, Kansas, she is one of the first people he sees every morning.

"Netsu starts my day on a positive note and with a great attitude," he says. "You can tell she truly cares for every person that walks through the door."

This caring approach to service, which comes naturally to Tegene and her co-workers, helps rank HPU Dining among the best in the country. It's also an example of HPU's values-based, holistic approach to education. In the classrooms, dining halls, residence halls and all across campus, HPU nurtures students' academic, spiritual and personal growth--right down to the menu selections served in the Cafe.

Tegene likes to point out the additions of organic and local food, cage-free eggs and grass-fed beef. She says students are excited about these offerings.

But for Tegene...