![43878528_10217146628515822_5138927003864399872_n Group photo of several people who are all wearing business attire.](https://www.aacrao.org/images/default-source/default-album/43878528_10217146628515822_5138927003864399872_n.jpg?sfvrsn=8e20567f_2)
Tammy Aagard, AACRAO Board Vice President for Admissions and Enrollment Management, and Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, University of Florida; Janie Barnett, AACRAO Associate Executive Director; and Natalia Jimenez, AACRAO Assistant Director Marketing & Exhibits attended the annual conference of AACRAO's sister organization
ARSEE in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2018.
At the conference, ARSEE leadership recognized Barnett's unique role in helping to build the relationships between the two organizations.
"The reason this conference is so special is because this time we would like to thank and recognize the extraordinary work of a very special woman that has been an extremely important person for ARSEE," said Lucía Treviño Villarreal, Student Services Director and University Registrar at the Universidad de Monterrey, in remarks at the meeting. "In 2011, a group of ARSEE founders with a great vision was driven by their mission to develop the role of Registrars through training and adopting the best work practices in the field... In this way, our founders planted a seed that with the proper care provided by them, the Board Members of ARSEE and [Barnett], has flourished into a tree of life. We present this tree as a symbol to her, to show her how her hard work, dedication, and care to ARSEE has made this seed grow so substantially."
The organization conferred a plaque and symbolic tree to Barnett, who was surprised by
the ceremony.
"I had no idea they were going to do this," Barnett said. "I am so moved and humbled by this recognition from ARSEE. Our partnership is a great example of what associations can do when we work together for student mobility, and I hope we look for other ways to partner in the future."
"How lucky I am to have known Janie," Treviño added. "She is like a diamond, precious and rare. Janie has been a wonderful advisor for my professional development and more important a personal friend. I will cherish her friendship forever!"
"She is an angel -- as I used to say, she is my angel in USA," said ARSEE Vice President Francisco Maldonado Altieri, Registrar at UPAEP University. "She is an exceptional human being, as a professional and as a friend."