SHEPHERDSTOWN – Every day at Shepherd University, there are people that constantly serve students and staff. These people are custodians, secretaries, office clerks and other jobs that common take place behind the scenes.
Many students might not think about the jobs these individuals perform unless the unseen heroes of Shepherd stopped doing them.
Connie Huiett works in facilities at the university. Her job has been to clean and service classrooms and buildings around campus for almost four years. Huiett is a mother and grandmother that commutes from Gerrardstown, W.Va. Huiett found her position in an online add, and she has been here ever since.
The hardest part about her job, she said, is keeping steady workers on staff. Huiett explained that when there aren’t enough workers, it makes all the their shifts more difficult. Huiett said that if there aren’t enough workers to clean the buildings, she gets rushed around trying to cover more buildings than usual.
Huiett usually cleans the Stutzman-Slonaker building, but she also occasionally cleans others. The best part about her job, according to Huiett, is the relationships she has built with some of the professors and students at the university.
“It’s great,” Huiett said, “to see the same kids every week and ask them how their semester is going. I love getting to see them doing well.”
Huiett finds her work rewarding because of the occasional recognition that students and professors give her. “I’ve had students and teachers thank me,” she said, “and that really means a lot. It makes it all worth it.”
Huiett said that her son and his wife graduated from Shepherd University, which makes the university special to her. Huiett also hopes that her grandkids will go to Shepherd, too, so they will be close to home.