If there’s a job that Anne Price can’t handle, she hasn’t found it yet.
Price, the office manager for the Campus Honors Program since August, has amassed a wealth of experience in 16 years at the U. of. I.
She started out in 1998 as part-time help at the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, where she provided secretarial support for the program managers for Graduate Education and Diversity and for Academic and International Collaboration.
There, she helped plan the annual summer research program conference and did database management – and watched and learned.
“It was a great place to work because there was a lot of collaboration and the people all worked well together,” she said. “I also had the opportunity to see many of the CIC campuses, which was pretty neat.”
She did this for six years before moving to a similar position in the College of Law for a year and then to the College of Education for four years.
In 2005, she was moved to a dean’s assistant position in the College of Education, and in 2007 she was promoted to office manager, where she kept the dean’s calendar and assisted in planning events.
“I got to help plan convocation, and I just loved doing that,” she said. “I learned a lot there; it was always busy.”
She moved to the officer manager position at the Center for African Studies in 2009 where she assisted the director with the daily operations of the center (“I really enjoyed the people there”), and in 2010, after departmental cuts, transferred to New Student Advising in the College of Liberal Arts and Science. It was there, under the mentorship of the assistant dean, that she developed a passion for working with students.
Each job experience has taught her something integral about the university.
“It seems there’s always something new to learn,” she said, a sentiment that is not reserved for work.
Price has spent the past eight years earning a bachelor’s degree in business from Eastern Illinois University.
“It’s been a lot of work, but they fit the program to your schedule and you just keep plugging away,” she said. ” It has been a personal goal of mine for a long time. I just wanted to finish it.”
Price said her experience working in New Student Advising exposed her to some of the challenges students face outside of the classroom.
“They have a lot on their plate, a lot to deal with,” she said, knowledge that has helped in her transition to the Campus Honors Program.
“The staff here is really dedicated to the students.”
She said the students in the prestigious program are among the most motivated and highest-achieving at the university and are “amazing” to work with.
“They’re not just the smartest kids,” she said, “they are the ‘I want to change the world’ kids. They tend to be the ones who push themselves really hard.”
In addition to CHP classes, special seminars and workshops, the students use the campus honors building, a converted residence, as a central social location. She said students routinely drop by the house to meet, study or just hang out.
“We try to create a community,” she said. “You can almost always find students using the lounge and other areas of the house. It’s one of the reasons I really like where I’m at; I feel like the jobs I’ve had before prepared me well for this job. It’s been a perfect fit for me.”
Prior to the U. of I., Price worked for 10 years as a secretary in the private sector and even tried her hand for a time as an at-home day care provider.
Price has been married for 30 years and has two adult daughters. She has lived in Mahomet, Illinois, for 25 years, though the couple has plans to move to Weldon, Illinois.
Her favorite season is anything that allows for gardening, and she is an avid reader.
“I pretty much like to read anything,” she said.
She also is involved with Mahomet Christian Church and, with her husband Scott, the local chapter of AMBUCS.
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