Feb. 12, 2008 issue
After three years as an area complex director here, I took a job outside the University in 1999. The year I spent away from campus made it very clear where I belonged. I remember, during that year, thinking "I want to go home" and, to me, that was Eastern.
I'm now associate director of admissions, which means I oversee all the freshman recruitment efforts and develop recruiting strategies. I also directly oversee all of our visit programs — the tours, group tours, the Presidential Scholarship Competition, Explore Eastern and Fast Track. I get to work with students not only when they're just reaching out to learn about Eastern, but also when they show up on campus for a visit and when they're actually making the decision to attend Eastern.
I think what I love most about EMU is the students. They're hardworking; they're real. They make my job easier. They're just down-to-earth. At other universities, their visit programs have students associated with them, but they're run by professional staff. Ours has one professional staff person, and that's me. I work day-to-day with 35 students, and they make this office go. They're doing what is, in many cases, done by professionals at other schools, and they get incredible feedback from guests.
There's also a sense of family here that I really appreciate. About a month and a half ago, I ran into a situation where, because of a miscommunication, I didn't have a presenter for the Presidential Scholarship Competition.
At 6 p.m. on the night before the event, I sent a last-ditch e-mail to English Language and Literature Professor Heather Neff that said, in essence, "If you happen to be reading your e-mail on a Friday evening, I need help."
She not only called me back within an hour and a half, (but) she did three sessions with parents the next day and totally saved me. That's one of the things I think is special — with less than 12 hours notice, it was "Whatever you need me to do, we're a team and we can do this. We're Eastern."
