Appreciating Amber
Feb. 9, 2001
KALAMAZOO -- Student Employee Appreciation Week (Feb. 12-16) is nothing new to senior Amber Ackley. She has been a student employee in the Office of University Relations every semester and most of the summers since her freshman year.
As a four-year member of the university relations team, Ackley can remember more of the previous Student Employee Appreciation Weeks than many of the people in her office. About one-half of the full-time staff have "less seniority" than this senior from Big Rapids, Mich.
She has also been around long enough to remember when the office was known as "marketing, public relations and communications." As Ackley will tell you, it is a lot easier to answer the telephone, "University relations."
In addition to the typical "phone, file and photocopy" of student employment, Ackley has had some unique opportunities in her job. An organizational communications major, she has contributed to a number of news-media projects, including the WMU Experts Guide and a variety of news releases. She has worked on several community relations projects, including the first two Homecoming Campus Classic Race/Walks, Southwest Fest, Bronco Bash and distributing WMU flags to area businesses.
Amber Ackley will become an alumna of Western Michigan University at Commencement ceremonies on April 21. She holds the distinction of having already had her picture appear in the University's alumni magazine more times than any other graduate. In fact, she has been pictured in WMU Magazine more times than celebrity Tim Allen and President Elson Floyd combined. Ackley has been a frequent model for WMU Bookstore sportswear featured in the magazine.
Outside of university relations, Ackley has been active in her sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi, and serves as vice president for risk management for the Pan Hellenic Conference. She has served as a hall monitor and a Bronco Days Ambassador, and this year, she will join other Western students for Alternative Spring Break.
Media contact: Thom Myers, 616 387-8400, thomas.myers@wmich.edu