Nov. 17, 2006

A member of Presbyterian College’s student life staff was honored this month for her early contributions to the college and to her profession.

Linda Jameison, now in her second year as the college’s director of career services and internships, was named New Professional of the Year by the Southern Association of College Student Affairs at the organization’s 57th annual conference in November.

The award is presented to full-time student life professionals of outstanding character who have served in the field fewer than five years and whose work is a model for other new professionals.

Jameison said she was at once flattered and validated by the honor – both for herself and PC’s office of student life.

“For me, personally, I’ve always thought of what I do as a career is lifelong,” she said. “From a PC perspective, I think it directly relates to our compelling purpose of promoting lifelong learning.”

While Jameison has enjoyed other opportunities in the business world prior to joining the college, each step in her career has offered a never-ending process of learning, growing, and contributing to society.

“While I’ve been working for years, being recognized as a new professional reinforces for me that commitment to myself of continuing to participate, continuing to contribute, and continuing to learn – and that it’s a give and take process all the time,” she said.

It’s the same philosophy that Jameison shares with PC students – that they commit themselves to the lifelong process of discovery and knowledge.

While still quite new to working in the academic world, Jameison said she is greatly enjoying the experience.

“It’s really been a pleasure,” she said. “Someone asked me about it last weekend, thinking I’ve been here a lot longer than I have been. Sometimes if feels that way – but in a good way in the sense that as soon as I started here last year, the community welcomed me and I felt like a part of it.

“… I enjoy getting up and coming to work every day. Part of what I enjoy doing is interacting with people. I have friends and acquaintances who are in businesses for themselves or who have businesses at home and do not have the constant interaction that I have. I know that that is not a career route that I could go because I enjoy that interaction with the variety of people I work with – faculty and staff and students here on campus, as well as the business community off campus.

Even as she describes her own personal sense of gratification working at PC, Jameison points to her relationships with students as the most important aspect of her job

“Giving students an education and asking students to embrace an education that makes them a contributing member of society when they leave is part of what we do on a day-to-day basis in career education,” she said. “It is partnered with academic interests and vocational interests so that students are aware of all those opportunities … Part of what we can do is help students be comfortable with knowing that while there will be changes and they will be anxious, they will also be able to rise to the occasion and be successful.”

In addition to the award presented to Jameison, SACSA’s latest annual conference also featured several presentations made by members of PC’s student life staff, including two by Jameison herself. Vice president for student life Dr. Bill McDonald also presented, as did dean of student life Telesia Davis, director of residence life and summer programs Beau Seagraves, Daniel Professor of Chemistry Dr. Ed Gouge, and area coordinator Vernon James, who presented with former PC staffers Marc Shook and Roland Bullard.

PC alumnae Tanisha Jenkins, director of multicultural student affairs at Western Carolina University, and Gwen Fernandes, a graduate resident at the University of Georgia, also were involved in the conference.

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