“I enjoy the energy I get from high school students. Each student has a different set of questions, which keeps me on my toes and constantly building on my knowledge of the University.”
An admissions web counselor in the Office of Admissions at Southeast, Lenell Hahn says her job is never boring. On any given day, Lenell will visit high schools in the area, including Cape Central, Notre Dame, Jackson and Saxony Lutheran, to inform students of the outstanding opportunities Southeast has to offer.
Lenell knows exactly what opportunities are available for incoming students. A graduate of Southeast herself, Lenell received both her undergraduate degree in marketing and her master’s degree in business administration from Southeast. While her initial plan was to pursue accounting after obtaining her associate of arts degree from Three Rivers Community College, Lenell had an amazing experience in a Southeast course which changed those ambitions.
“When I transferred, my initial major was accounting,” she says. “Every business student must complete the core business curriculum, which includes the course ‘Principles of Marketing.’ This was my turning point. I absolutely enjoyed this course and it opened my eyes to the wonderful world of marketing.”
Choosing Southeast as a career destination seemed to be a logical decision for Lenell. Working as a graduate assistant in the University Relations office while getting her MBA, Lenell said she gained Web site knowledge as well as a feel for the University work environment. Her work as a graduate assistant gave her the knowledge, skills and abilities to become an admissions web counselor. Lenell says she gets to work on new and exciting Web site projects, including Web journals for those students in their first year at Southeast, those who are working on exciting internships and students who have studied abroad.
Lenell also continues to enjoy the relationships she built while attending Southeast as a student. This fall, she and her husband have plans to travel to Denmark to visit friends from Lenell’s MBA program experience at Southeast. Sharing the same love of travel as the students studying abroad, Lenell and her husband have traveled to Jamaica, Hawaii and Colorado, just within the last two years. When no travel ideas have been planned in advance, the two visit Kentucky Lake on most summer weekends.
Lenell believes that a college experience can be made even better through early planning. She says that one of the most important things high school students should do to prepare for college is to take the opportunity to speak with admissions counselors.
“High school students should get to know their college admissions counselors,” Lenell says. “They are advocates at the university where you have an interest, and they are a wealth of knowledge on scholarships and deadlines.”