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Amanda Musgrove juggles a lot: loving wife, caring mother, dedicated
student, hard worker, dependable friend. A nontraditional student here
at VSU, Amanda decided she wanted to go back to school after spending
some time working and raising her daughter. At 27 years old, that can
be a difficult thing to do, especially when you're used to a steady
paycheck. To offset that change, soon after she began classes again,
Amanda applied to an open Student Assistant position in the Office of
Housing & Residence Life (HRL). Working side-by-side with other
students who were sometimes eight or nine years her junior, one would
think there might have been an awkward age gap or aloofness about her,
but no. Amanda was one of the hardest and most personable Student
Assistants in the office, and she fit right in and learned the ins and
outs of the job quickly. She alo balanced the job very well with her
studies. It seemed her age gave her a leg up there; a voracious
learner, nothing was more important to Amanda than her education. Fast forward a year, and a promotion to Receptionist has become
available in the HRL office. This job would actually entail overseeing
the very Student Assistants that Amanda currently worked with, as well
as any other secretarial duties of the front office, and providing the
first line of customer service to parents and on-campus residents.
Amanda jumped at the opportunity for not only a pay increase to help
support her family, but also the opportunity to learn more about the
department she worked in. She had the advantage over her competition of
having already worked in the office in which she was applying, so the
learning curve would be much quicker. I have also never seen someone so
dedicated to customer satisfaction and professionalism as she, and so
of course, when the application and interview process was over in late
November, Amanda received the position. Even though the HRL office was only open for about two and a half weeks
in December, Amanda showed an intense determination to get as familiar
with her new job as possible before she left for the winter break.
Since she was previously a Student Assistant and had worked with the
others, she knew how to be a supportive and positive supervisor to
them, and took their feedback and advice to heart. Once she moved into
her new office, she was welcomed with open arms by the rest of the HRL
staff, and she knew that she had the full support of her old coworkers
(who were actually now her employees). She switched her spring semester
classes to online courses so that she was free during the work-week,
and began to prepare for winter closing. Never one to shy away from a
challenge, she took it head on and surpassed all expectations for a new
employee. The last week of classes, as a member of the HRL team, she
was invited to the Fall NRHH Induction ceremony. At the time she had no
idea who was being inducted or even what NRHH was, but she still came.
When asked why she went, she said that she was curious about what
sounded like an interesting Housing organization, and that she wanted
to be supportive. Soon after the halls closed, she recevied an
invitation to the wedding of one of her Student Assistants, and to her
friend's delight, Amanda happily showed up, again showing her still-
close rapport with her employees. Amanda Musgrove may be new to Housing
& Residence Life at VSU, but she promises great things.
Word Count: 598
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