“On the Job” is a weekly feature that highlights the duties, backgrounds and personalities of various student employees at Central Michigan University. This week, staff reporter Dominick Mastrangelo sat down with Student Activities and Involvement employee Alexandria Kennedy to learn about the Arizona senior's job.

Name: Alexandria Kennedy

Class: Senior

Hometown: Goodyear, Ariz.

Major: Applied Arts and Communication

Time spent on the job: Four semesters

Job description: Kennedy works on a number of projects with Student Activities and Involvement, but focuses primarily on coordinating Greek Life at CMU.

What are some of your daily duties within the department?

Alexandria Kennedy: A lot of it is checking grades for sorority and fraternity recruitment. Students give us permission to share their grades with the various chapters, and I work as a liaison between the two parties.

What is the busiest or most hectic time for the department?

AK: Right now is one of our busiest times of the year. Sorority recruitment is at its peak. It’s a lot of repetitive work. I planned my work schedule to work mornings because most people are going to fill out their forms at night, so I can have everything when I come in the next morning. It’s a little overwhelming, but I just sit here and get in the zone and get to it. I get my Starbucks and I’m good to go.

Is it difficult balancing your professional relationship with students against your personal relationship with them?

AK: I’m old enough now to where I am removed from a lot of the community. Sometimes a friend will text me and ask me for a favor and I have to tell them they have to go through the same process everyone else does. Just because I work for my organization doesn’t mean I don’t love the Greek community as a whole.

Can you give an example of one of your favorite projects you’ve worked on through the department?

AK: Over the summer, I did research for a Greek history video. I looked through all of the old CMU yearbooks and collected pictures of our organization throughout the years and created a timeline based on what I found. It was a ton of fun. It was really funny to see all the different clothing styles and groups of people who have been involved here on campus.

You’ve said you can imagine yourself doing work like this for the rest of your life. Why is that so?

AK: I love the idea behind student involvement. When people do it right, fraternities and sororities are unstoppable. I’ve gotten to interact with people I never would have had a chance to otherwise. I got to know University President (George) Ross and a lot of other super-important people. I really love being involved outside of the classroom.

What advice would you give to underclassman who are looking to get involved with student activities on campus?

AK: If they are looking for virtually anything to do outside of the classroom, our office (located on the basement/first floor of the University Center) is the perfect place to come. We have more than 400 student organizations. A lot of people get really good professional experience out of some of these organizations. It worked out great for me.