Feature: USC Aiken's most familiar face
You’ve probably seen her when you’re walking by the USCA Student Life office, surrounded by students and faculty alike, or maybe you’ve noticed posts on Facebook that don’t seem to be from a student.
Mandi Welch, office manager for student affairs, has been a part of student life for 13 years and plans to stay until retirement.
“When I started working at USCA, I didn’t realize what it was like to work somewhere and actually be appreciated and to have the opportunity to work with people that you like and be surrounded by a campus that makes you feel like you are at home when you are not at home,” wrote Welch.
Though she is not an Aikenite, Welch attended Aiken Tech after graduating high school, but “life got in the way, marriage, becoming a mom,” Welch described. “... until last year. I have started working, slowly, toward my Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services.”
Welch writes that the students “have and will always be the favorite part about my job.”
When she initially began at USCA, it was in June, when there were few students on campus. “... but when August rolled around and everyone was back,” she wrote, “it was like I had found where I was supposed to be. It may have taken 20 years for me to find it, but I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.”
Her place in the Student Life office allows her to interact with students on a more personal level, day to day. She describes the ability to “meet these students their freshmen year and watch them grow and mature over the next four or five years” and develop a bond with them.
“They are like my children that I didn’t have to raise,” she wrote.
“I truly do love the students, they are the reason I come to work, they are my passion, they are the reason why I thought about going back to school, they are the reason why I do what I do.”
What makes it worthwhile, Welch writes, is when a student visits or emails her expressing their thanks and how much they miss her.
USCA, according to Welch, has a “family atmosphere.”
“There is no other place that you can go or work in my opinion, go to a school and just feel like you have a family.”
When asked what she misses most while campus is closed, Welch wrote “Oh my gosh… everything. The office, my desk, the loud noise in the office … I miss my co-workers. I miss Ahmed! I miss students breathing down my neck. I miss Starbucks and the Pacer Café. I especially miss seeing all the beautiful blooms in the springtime out in the quad.”
The self-isolation is a challenge, according to Welch.
“I’m an extrovert. I love to give hugs. I love to shake hands. I love talking to people face to face. This is not a good situation.”
She joked that while she has the “utmost love” for her husband.
“If we were stuck in the same house for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I’m not sure what would happen. My youngest daughter and I, however, are getting on each other’s nerves.”
She wrote that board games and anything involving “getting out of the house for a few minutes” helps out with the situation.
While Welch is not a student, the remote learning has its impact as well.
“It’s impacting me because I just feel for the students. I talk to some and they say they are struggling and then others say they are doing fine. It’s a struggle for everyone, faculty and staff as well as students.”
Because of this, Welch regularly posts on the USCA Student Life Facebook page. She wrote that her original plan was to send out an email, but “like Ahmed said, they are getting so many emails that Facebook was going to be the best place to reach them, so I did!”
Welch’s inspiration in life: “God and my children.”
She describes amazement at her “beautiful grandbabies,” and the “tender, caring heart” of her youngest daughter.
“I am inspired to move forward every day because I know that is what God wants me to do. He saved me from a massive heart attack in 2011, he spared my mom’s life twice, once from a stroke and the second time when she was diagnosed with breast cancer- she is now cancer free. That is my inspiration!”
Mandi Welch also provided some words of encouragement to her fellow coworkers as well as students: “Hang in there, this too shall pass!”
