Welcome Back Annette!
“It’s the little things in life.” This could mean something different to everyone, but to a college student it may mean opening your mailbox to find a letter or getting an email that the package you have been anticipating has arrived. Annette St. Ledger, the student mail room clerk, finds her job very rewarding for this reason. Before St. Ledger began at Monmouth College, on August 1, 2016, she worked for 16 years as the Chief Financial Officer in Healthcare and 7 years as Coordinator of Accounting Services and Bursar at Carl Sandburg College. St. Ledger took the position at Monmouth College after being tired of working 11-12 hour days in front of a computer and in meetings. She also wanted to work closer to home.
This was a big career change for St. Ledger. “I had never been around that generation. I never had children and being an only child, I had no nieces or nephews. I found the students to be bright, funny, and full of life. Keeps me young. I enjoy getting to know some of their interests, hear about their challenges at the college and, of course, their triumphs. I learn just as much from them as they learn from me. I quickly fell in love with the job and four years passed very quickly.” said St. Ledger.
On May 29, 2020 St. Ledger closed up the mailroom for the summer, taking everything with her, leaving nothing behind. In April during a conference call that had shared the college’s financial situation with the staff, she had a feeling that there was a good chance she would not be returning and on June 3rd she got the phone call that the student mailroom position was going to be cut. “My first thought was that I had not gotten to say goodbye to the six student workers I had worked so closely with,” said St. Ledger. This is when she decided it was probably best that she gets a job in the career she originally had gotten her degree in. She turned in applications at businesses around Monmouth. “August 3rd was the date that I was supposed to return to work at the college. It hit me like a ton of bricks on that day. I was not going to be back to work getting everything prepared for the fall semester,” said St. Ledger. The afternoon of August 21st, St. Ledger got a phone call that they were needing help in the mailroom. She returned to work Monday, August 24th and began sorting through 264 packages that were dropped off by USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL.
With shortened hours in the mailroom of 9am-3pm instead of 9am-5pm and a smaller student staff, a new locker system was introduced. Packages are usually in by 1:30pm, unclaimed packages then get moved off the mailroom shelf and put into the lockers. This way, students can have contactless pick up of their packages for as long as Stockdale is open (until about 10pm). This means that students no longer have to sign for their package using the iPad. This may also be more helpful for students who may not be able to get over to Stockdale during the day to get their package.
“Coming back to campus where there were many changes, I did not expect Annette being gone to be one of them,” said Senior Shyanne Sheehan. “When I came onto campus as a freshman, I was so nervous and unsure about navigating the mailroom. I was unsure of how anything worked. I just really needed all the things I had ordered off of Amazon, but Annette was there to help me. Ever since then she’s been someone that I can go to on campus that will always listen, or just give a warm smile to brighten my day. Having Annette back in the mailroom adds a little bit more normalcy to my daily life on campus.”
“A large part of working in the student mail room relates to customer service,” said St. Ledger. “When a student lets us know that they are excited to receive a letter that is important to them, it only takes a second to quickly send them an e-mail to say ‘Hey, check your mailbox! I think that item you were looking for has arrived!’ It’s a satisfying feeling to see them hurry to their mailbox and zip through the lobby waving the letter and saying ‘That’s what I was looking for! THANK YOU!!’ And a huge ‘THANK YOU!’ from the bottom of my heart to all the wonderful students who make me look forward to coming to my job every day,”.
Alison Barrington - Staff Writer