A New Year at ONU

It’s week two of classes here at Northern which means students are finally getting back in the swing of things. Students who spent the summer working or interning at home have moved back to campus and gotten settled into their new apartments. As for me, I did things a little backwards this summer. While most students were packing up to head home for the summer, I was packing my bags at home to move to campus for a summer job. Once summer was over and students began packing their bags to head back to Ada, I was packing mine to head back home, because I commute during the school year.

For my Principles of Social Media course, one of our three weekly blog posts is supposed to regard some aspect of our life at ONU. For my first post I think it is appropriate that I blog about how my life at ONU this year is a little different than it was my freshman and sophomore years of college, thanks to an awesome opportunity this summer.

I took a job on campus as a summer conference coordinator and it was the best experience I've had thus far at Northern. I worked for the McIntosh Center and handled the majority of the communication between the university and the directors of all summer camps and conferences. As a commuter who had never lived on campus before, I started the job very intimidated. I had hardly any knowledge of the nonacademic aspects of our campus so I had to quickly learn each of the residence halls and the ins and outs of the McIntosh Center. In addition to coordinating conferences for outside groups, I worked with quite a few professors to coordinate academic camps and several ONU coaches and athletes to coordinate sports camps. Throughout the summer I got to know the campus security officers and some of the employees at the ONU Physical Plant, which had its perks. Every day was a new challenge. This job strengthened my communication skills, my customer service skills and my teamwork skills.
 

When David Dellifield, Director of the McIntosh Center, offered me the job he had a hard time giving me a job description. Looking back now, that is completely understandable because I wore many hats this summer. First and foremost I was a liaison between the university and campus visitors. Some days I was the girl who answered the phone. Some days I was the girl with the set of master keys. Some days I felt like I was part of the custodial and maintenance staff. However, every day this summer I was the face of Ohio Northern for many people and that gave me a great sense of pride for my school.

This summer I made long-lasting friendships and learned so much about the way our campus operates. I’m still living at home during the school year to save money, but this year already feels different. Ohio Northern University finally feels like a second home to me and I owe it all to a wonderful summer job!