The Honors College is pleased to welcome Em Acuña as a front office student worker. Acuña joined the Honors College as a front office student worker beginning January 2024. Acuña is an Honors College junior majoring in psychology with a concentration in social science and a minor in media studies. Having been a student in the Honors College since the Fall 2022 semester, they came into this position already familiar with the Honors College community and mission ready to “spread the word and promote the college the best I can.”
The front office student workers serve as the front face of the Honors College. The day-to-day duties include answering and organizing responses to phone calls and emails. They forward emails to specific staff or to other units, as needed. They also help curate the monthly slideshow on the front office television screen, keeping it up-to-date with events and opportunities. Front office student workers are also responsible for sharing information about and inviting the Honors College community to upcoming thesis defenses, then posting successful defenses to the Honors College social media accounts.
Student workers help fill-in as needed in leading Honors College “Tour and Talks” for prospective students and their families. The College mainly receives questions from prospective students about the upcoming year via phone or email. As seasoned and engaged students themselves, student workers like Acuña are well-positioned to answer those questions and share their love of the college with others. They shared, “The ‘Tour and Talks’ are always fun to do, in my opinion, and I love getting pulled in to talk to prospective students and their families.”
Acuña notes that they have learned a lot about the inner working of the Honors College in this position. They reflect, “The majority of my duty revolves around providing new/prospective students with answers, and to do that, I’ve learned a lot about the admission process and other things since working here. Also, learning how to write clear and proper emails to faculty members has been helpful outside of the position. Everyone, the faculty, and students are so welcoming in the Honors College, and getting to see how invested they are first-hand has been super cool.”
Acuña shared how they found this position: “I was having trouble finding an on-campus job to support my work-study financial aid requirements and reached out to my advisor, Dr. McDowell. Luckily for me, Dr. McDowell had heard that the Honors College was looking for a new desk assistant and got me in contact with Dr. Klima to discuss the position and see if it fit what I needed. It was a perfect fit!”
Acuña has many traits that made them an ideal candidate and worker for this position. In their own words, “I would describe myself as very diligent, and I like to keep on top of everything, which comes in handy for the organization of thesis defenses, specifically. Creating those posts for social media is something I also make an effort to stay on top of, and often do it right after I’ve created and sent the calendar link for the event to everyone. I’m also adaptable, which is helpful whenever a tour needs another person to help out since it’s not necessarily something I come into work expecting to do. That also ties into my personability as a whole, which shines through when I get to sit in and talk to potential students and their families. It’s also a skill I’ve developed more through this job by helping with tours and answering the phone, which can sometimes be trickier than in-person conversation.”
In the front office, Acuña currently works with Honors College senior Annie Morgan, who has been a front office student worker for the Honors College for over two years. Acuña shared, “Annie Morgan, the other desk assistant, has been so helpful in training me and keeping me acclimated if anything new pops up.” Acuña and Morgan work different hours at front desk of the Honors College, but they work collaboratively across their time-slots to tackle tasks.
This job has provided and continues to provide Acuña and other student workers professional development. They shared, “My confidence when communicating and talking to others has only increased with this position and I’m forever grateful for that since I’m a pretty introverted person outside of this setting. The previous jobs I’ve had have also been heavy on customer service and communication, but there’s a difference in the type of communication in this academic setting to those jobs I’ve found. It’s been interesting to navigate and learn. The main things I would love to take away from this job are the connections I’ve made with the staff and other student workers and those students that I’ve talked to about App State.”
Walking into the 2024-25 academic year, Acuña hopes “to continue getting to know everyone I work with, from staff to students, and building those relationships. I would also love to get involved in more ways if I’m able to. I love doing the tours and getting to have that face-to-face connection with people that I’m usually just emailing a quick answer to. So being more involved that way would be awesome. Professionally, my goal is probably to just be able to answer more emails than I forwarded this semester. Since I just started, there are some things that I was clueless about so I would forward them to a staff member. I’m hoping that next year I’ll be able to send a lot less of those emails and answer those questions that I now know the answers to.”
After completing her undergraduate degree, Acuña plans to go to graduate school and conduct research. They shared, “A lot of my courses within Honors have pushed me to keep pondering questions asked of me and ask my own questions to get to a deeper understanding, which is the crux of research in my opinion.” Learning and working in the Honors College, Acuña is honing the skills needed—building connections and communicating effectively—to be successful in research, graduate school, and life.
Top photo features Honors College front office student worker, Em Acuña. Photo submitted.
