What is your job title?
Assistant Manager
How long have you been at MSU?
Four years
Have you been a member of the APA the whole time?
Yes
What department do you work in, and can you tell me a little bit about what you do?
I work in the University Activities Office with the University Activities Board (UAB). In my role, along with my colleagues, I co-advise two graduate assistants, 11 student directors, and the numerous volunteers of UAB. Our team works with our graduate assistants to prepare them for future roles in student affairs and higher education in areas such as advising, campus policies, and professional development. We work with our undergraduate students on everything from contracts to payments, event coordination, event accessibility, marketing, event implementation and execution, professional development, and anything else they may need support in.
I also coordinate the winter and spring MSU Arts and Crafts Show, facilitating over 500 crafters from across the country between the two events. All booth fees paid by the crafters go to the programming budget for UAB, which allows us to offer free or low cost events to the MSU Community.
What brought you to your job at MSU?
The opportunity to work at a Big Ten school with a robust activities board and fantastic student leaders really was the reason for applying and accepting the position I currently hold.
What do you love about working at MSU?
The students! I’ve worked at several institutions in my 11 plus years in higher education and I’ve never had such passionate student leaders who are willing to develop, grow, and learn, but also to challenge, advocate, and make change, be it here at MSU or in the world.
What do you like to do when you are not at work?
I love spending time with my fiancé (soon to be husband!) and our two fur babies Coraline and Lyra.
I also volunteer a lot of my time to my fraternity Kappa Sigma, where I serve as a local and regional advisor; I volunteer with ACPA-Educators International, a professional organization for student affairs and higher education, where I am active in several components of the organization; and I volunteer my time with my Higher Education Student Affairs Graduate Alumni Association from Eastern Michigan University in developing and supporting both current students in the graduate program and fellow alumni from the program. Â I also like to collect panda trinkets and collectables.