Amidst the numerous adjustments across campus from a transition in semesters to a switch in University presidents, the ONU Office of Admissions has also implemented change by hiring three new staff members: Lyndsey Sartin, Reggie Onyido and Brad Boellner.
While Boellner is the newest hire, both Sartin and Onyido have already made their impact on prospective students and the Admissions Office.
“With Reggie being an ONU alum, he knows a lot about campus and knows the feel of not only how it feels to be a student here, but now also a staff member. I think this is a good quality to have when recruiting new students because he knows first hand how it feels to be a new student here and can connect with the new students on that level,” senior nursing major and Bear Ambassador Chelsia Stack said.
As an ONU alum and B.S.B.A. graduate, Onyido has served as the coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment and Enrollment Counselor since October. For Onyido, it was an easy transition back to Ada.
“I absolutely love ONU, and I had the best overall college experience as a student,” Onyido said. “Moving back to Ada was a very easy transition for me. I think being a recent graduate helped to ease my transition.” Onyido’s projects for 2012-2013 include on campus retention programs, identifying schools with strong students for ONU, and networking to build relationships with prospective students.
What Onyido likes best about the position is his opportunity to meet and share his passion for ONU with new individuals.
“I love traveling and sharing my ONU experience with high school students,” Onyido said. “The ability to draw from my own personal experience of college and ONU helps to interest new students. Having an outgoing and friendly personality is also an attraction to new students.”
While Onyido utilizes his experiences as an ONU graduate, Sartin, on the other hand, joined the ONU Admissions staff in July, transitioning from Kentucky. After completing her bachelor’s of science in communication disorders from Eastern Kentucky University, Sartin served as a special recruitment coordinator for EKU Admissions for three years before taking on the position of ONU assistant director of admissions.
“Since she has experience previously with admissions, she knows how to connect with her prospective students and really show them the key features ONU has to offer, and does this without sounding ‘mom-ish’ or boring,” Stack said.
Sartin’s responsibilities are to recruit within southwestern Ohio, as well as direct admissions’ e-communication and telecenter programs. Under these duties, Sartin’s goals are to expand upon electronic communication by creating a successful e-communication plan to inform and engage prospective students.
“The electronic communications have become very active in recruiting and informing prospective students about what ONU can offer them and has already provided recent graduates,” Sartin said.
While these are her individual goals, the Office of Admissions’ overall goal is to increase applications and enroll more than 800 first time freshmen, transfers and international students for the 2012-13 academic year, according to Sartin.
“We would like to continue the quality and success that ONU has had for many, many years. Our main goal is to always help improve ONU as much as possible and represent to our fullest,” Sartin said.
To help meet this goal, Sartin displays her knowledge and excitement toward the recruitment process each day in the office.
“She’s one of those people that you can’t help but smile at when you see her,” junior business management major and Bear Ambassador Shayla Moyer said. “I always make a point to see her when I’m in the office because she brightens my day.”
For Sartin, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing the excitement of an accepted student.
“My favorite aspect of my job is the interaction with prospective and current students, the people in my office and when a student screams with excitement because they found out they were accepted to ONU,” Sartin said.
Boellner was unavailable for an interview at the time of publication; he was out of state.