Hello, you are listening to who's that Star? On LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star? is a behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk with employees at Lansing Community College. This is an inside look at LCC where you will be able to learn about their passions, projects, what inspires them both at work and in their personal life. I'm your host, Julianna Blain, and I also go by my nickname, Juji. This show is for you to get to know the great people behind the scenes at LCC. Are you ready to go behind the scenes with me? Come on, let's go find out who's that Star. Our star today is someone who has worked at LCC for 20 years this year, it's a great place to work. She started out as lead support and is now the divisional projects coordinator for the Arts and Science division. I met her early in my LCC career when I was able to shadow her and learn some best practices as I was a new hire. She's a very helpful person and she's highly involved in many important areas here at LCC. All right, are you ready to meet her? Let's get that drum roll. And our star is Amy Park. Hi, Amy. Thanks so much for being on the show today.

Hi, Juji.

How's your day been so far?

Great.

Good, good, good. Well, I'm really excited to learn more about you and share with our audience all the fun stuff about you and what you do here at LCC. So let's jump in. So let's talk about where are you from? Are you from the Lansing area somewhere else?

I am. I actually grew up in Holt. A proud Holt High School graduate.

Go Rams.

Yep.

My sister went to Holt. Very cool. So, Holt area. So let's talk about what are some of your favorite movies or TV shows, stuff that you just really like to watch?

Surprisingly, I am a huge gangster film and TV show junkie at. My favorite movie is the Godfather. During the pandemic, I missed the Sopranos when it first came out because my daughter was little, so I didn't watch a lot of TV at that point. But during the pandemic, I had some free time and I watched like five or six seasons of the Sopranos and loved it.

That's amazing. Exactly. Do you channel that inner gangster here at work?

I don't know why I find it so fascinating.

Really? No, it's very cool. It's very cool. So what, is there any pieces of advice or mottos that you like to live by or that you see in your Life that are important to you.

My favorite little piece of advice that I picked up along the way is that you can't change other people's behavior. You can only change your reaction to it. That's helped me a lot. You stop trying to get other people to do what you want them to do and just worry about yourself.

Yeah. That's a really big key to life, I feel like.

Yeah.

Because you really can't control their people or their reactions. All you can do is manage yours. And that probably comes in very handy. Like I think of customer service, I think of here working at LCC, I think of, you know, if you're ever in a situation where someone's, you know, having a struggle, it's like that.

Exactly. You can turn. It's always nice if you can turn someone else's day around.

Right, right. Managing your reactions so then they feel, oh, it's a calm and nice place.

Exactly.

Yeah. And you seem like a very calm person.

Thank you. I try. It's very carefully cultivated.

I like it. What's something that can just instantly make your day better?

That would be my family. My husband, my daughter, my son in law. I have two grandsons who are 4 and 6. Oh, what a fun age. Yes. So one of them just turned four yesterday.

Oh my goodness. Adorable. I know. They're kind of long distance. Do you guys get to talk a lot?

They are long distance. We facetime all the time. We talk on the phone all the time. It makes a big difference. And you know, with the remote, you know, going remote, I was able to spend sometime once everyone was vaccinated, was able to spend some time, like a length of time, like a month or so with them. So that was. That was amazing.

That is beautiful. Yeah. The fam. Nothing like them. Especially like at that age with the grandbabies.

I know, right? They really like me a lot right now. I love that.

And if you keep building that, I mean, who's to say that won't continue?

I know, right? I hope so.

Favorite grandma.

Yes.

Well, what is your favorite season and why do you like it?

Really? Anything except winter. So summer, spring, fall, winter. I am not a fan of the cold at all. So any other season is just fine with me.

Anything but winter.

Yep.

What is it about winter that you don't like?

You know, especially the older I get, the more creaky I get as the weather gets cold. And you know, you're like, my sciatica is acting up, but.

Oh my goodness. No, I think that's true for honestly, any. Well, I feel true for me as well. It hurts so much more in the cold. Like, your bones ache. You're like, wow.

Which I can't even move. Exactly. I'm definitely a warm weather person.

Yes. What would you say is an essential part of your daily routine? Something you just really like to do? Something that probably you do daily reading.

I read every morning and every night. You know, I can do it more now that I don't have any kids in the house. But even when my daughter was little, we, you know, you'd set her up with a book and me up with a book, and so that encourages the love of reading in them. And you still get to do what you're enjoying doing.

Yes. A little reading club.

It really is. Yeah. In fact, even, you know, we did, like, where we would read, like the.

Harry Potter books and so, like, read them together.

We would. When she. She was about 8 when they first came out, so I started out reading them to her. And then as the years went on, we would have to buy two copies of the book so we could both read it and then talk about it. But we still share, like, book recommendations and stuff. She'll. She'll. Every once in a while, she'll. She'll text me and she'll say, you need to read this book.

You're, like, on it. It's on my list.

Got it.

If she recommends it, she's always right. Oh, that's awesome. Yes. Reading is so good. It's super relaxing. It's very. You can kind of just be transported in a way. You can learn a lot.

Yes. It takes you out of your. Whatever stresses you happen to be going through at that point, and then you can refocus when you're done.

So that's nice. What is a hobby or a project that you truly enjoy doing something you do and it just feels like it fills up your cup, makes you so happy you can't wait to do it. What's a hobby or a craft or something?

I am a crafty person. I love to do crafts. I like to crochet. I taught myself how to crochet. Crochet?

You taught yourself?

Yes. Well, you know, YouTube videos nowadays. I mean, back in the old days, I used. I learned how to do it with a book, but now you can watch it on YouTube and you can learn how to do stuff. My pandemic project, last on my pandemic project was to learn how to use the sewing machine that I had had for 30 years.

Your facial expressions are cracking me up right now.

It was Such a big deal for me. I've had that in the box just silently shaming me for 30 years that, you know, we spent a lot of money on it at the time that we didn't really have. And I was gonna sew clothes for my daughter, and I think I tried it once, and I never could thread it, so I never got anywhere with it. So, you know, to learn how to do that, finally, the instructions were on vhs. And oddly, I still have a VCR player, and so I watched how to thread it and how to. And I can use it now, and it works perfectly. It's pristine. It's in pristine condition.

It's been kept very well. It has.

It's like a little time machine.

Oh, my gosh. What about what. Some of the things you like to make with it.

Oh, well, I'm not very good at it yet. I made cartons, you know, straight square things. Yeah. So I made. You know, I can do that. Pillow covers. Oh, I did reupholster. This is actually kind of impressive. I did reupholster the. I've got, like, wicker furniture in my sunroom, and it has cushions on it, and I reupholster upholstered those cushions. So. Wow. You're gonna be. Somebody's gonna. I know. I'm finally saving money with it.

Curtains are very expensive.

Not gonna lie. I mean, if you can make curtains, if you need any, I'm your girl.

Call Amy for curtains. So crafts kept you busy during the pandemic?

Yes, they did.

Oh, beautiful. Would you say that you are an introvert or an extrovert? I.

Surprisingly, to a lot of people, I'm an introvert. I enjoy being with people, and I en. I'm very social, but I do have to have that time alone to kind of refill my. My tank. Very real.

It's a very real thing. Yeah. Because sometimes, I mean, you can get this certain type of energy and refill from other people, but, man, when your tank is empty, like you said, or your cup, you poured out all your cup on other people. There's something about just stepping back, maybe reading a book. Yes.

Luckily, everyone in my family is kind of the same way. So a lot of times people, you know, someone in the family will have been in about. In the world, and they'll be like, I just need to be alone for a while.

You're like, we understand.

We all get it. We understand.

I feel like most people might be like that way and just not know it yet, honestly, because you get going, you get excited to do Things. See, people. I know. I do.

Yes.

I didn't realize till I'm 31, till, you know, in my. Probably 28, that I was like, oh, my goodness, I think I need alone time.

Yes, everyone does.

This is kind of a fun question. If you could hire someone to help you and it would be with cleaning, cooking, or yard work, which one would you pick?

It is definitely yard work. I am, I'm allergic. I have all sorts of outdoor allergies. So while I, you know, it's another one of those, like the sewing machine things where it sounds like it would be really cool to be able to do, I just don't have the. I just don't have that.

That would take it out of you.

So we actually pay someone already to come and do they mow the lawn and we pay them to shovel the snow in the wintertime. And it's really some of the best money we've ever spent.

I'd say that's quite the.

Yes, that's quite the cooking and cleaning, that kind of stuff. I love that. So I would never outsource that. But definitely the yard work, that's the first to go.

Especially with those seasonal allergies. My goodness, I don't get them. But I've been around people who do, and I just. All I can do is pray for them and hand them clarity.

Exactly. Exactly. When you tell people you're allergic to cut grass, they're like, yeah, sure. You are like, no.

Do you see these teeth?

Do you see this?

Oh, my goodness. Well, so I'm gonna kind of switch a little and talk about your career and work related things. So let's talk about what was your first job?

My first job ever was at a place called Rich's Country Store, which is actually still there on the corner of MLK or I guess it's M99 out that way and Bishop Road.

Okay.

It was a small family owned store and I worked there for about five years while I was in college. And it was a great experience. I learned how to get along with irate customers and how to tell people no in a way that, you know, they don't freak out on you.

Yeah. That kind of goes back to the advice you shared in the beginning about, you know, you can control your reaction, not other people learning that. So maybe that played a role.

Yep, it won. It's a handy. It's a handy skill to have. I've used it in every job that I've ever had. So it was. It's definitely something that, that I'm Glad I had the experience.

Highly emotionally intelligent, I'd say.

Thank you.

Y. So can you tell me a little bit about your work at LCC and what. What you do here?

I'm a project coordinator in the arts and sciences division. I do a little bit of everything. I kind of work with the division and the physical plant to facilitate things like remodeling and, you know, different things that will need done. Classrooms. Yeah. I also work on a lot of our processes. We have. Late enrollment right now is a big one.

Oh, late enrollment. I remember when I was a student,.

I remember that late enrollment is something that we're working on right now, and I work with the staff to try to get their, you know, their input as to what's happened, and then we try to figure out ways to make it better.

Oh, I like that.

Yeah, it's. It's a. It's a great thing to be able to get their. What they're going through, you know, at each step and where the. Where the roadblocks are to try to help them out.

That makes a lot of sense. I like that you're getting the feedback and then, like, making better solutions. It sounds like. That's very.

That's what we try. That's the goal.

Hey, where there's a will, there's a way.

Exactly.

What about any. Are you involved in any, like, fun or special projects or teams or initiatives that you like, really like?

I am, actually. I'm on the Experience Star Power team, as is Juji, which, you know, we handle a lot of the fun things for employees. Right now, the big thing is the awards showcase.

Yeah.

So if you are an LCC employee and you have someone that you work with that you think is awesome is doing a great job, be sure to go on to the Experience Star Power web page and nominate them for one of the showcase awards.

Experience Star Power Plug right there. The award showcase is super cool. It just helps. Do you want to tell people a little bit? Sure.

There are several categories. There's the President's Award, which is, like, one for an employee. Any employee of the college can win the President's Award. There's the Provost Award, and that's geared towards teaching faculty and academic professionals. There is an award for support staff. There's one for. We've just put a new one out for accessibility.

Yay.

Which it leads in right into my other committee that I'm on, which is the Aqua Team, which, you know, how we love our acronyms. I can't even tell you what Aqua stands for, which I Know I'm gonna get some trouble for accessibility quality. Something, something.

It just reminds me of Aquaman.

Exactly.

You know, being a superhero, you're basically a superhero.

That's absolutely it.

Oh my gosh. So you're on the accessibility Aqua Team. So that would just mean probably a lot of things, but making our documents maybe processes all those things accessible to people who might have differing abilities. Exactly.

Yep. That's what we do. The accessibility the Aqua Team actually handles. Aqua Team. The Aqua Team. It does sound like superheroes, doesn't it? Sounds like this is more of a quality assurance. So what we do is we kind of work with the entire college. We do a review of the non academic documents and materials and then Ally. Yep, sorry, elearning, kind of handles the academic materials. So they get all their reports through Ally. But we actually have a team of volunteers, Aqua Team. The Aqua Team volunteers that go in and they actually review documents like we spot check. So you know, a certain percentage of the documents in each area, they will check and make sure that they're accessible and give the people feedback so that if there are problems, we kind of try to tell them how to fix it.

Got it.

We want to be a pal. We want to tell people how to make it better.

Well, that's helpful. I think that that is one of the biggest things you can do. And the Aqua Team, it sounds like you're going through documents making them accessible for people with just differing abilities. Maybe sight, hearing, anything like that. That might be, you know, normal non accessible documents might be a struggle for. Is that kind of.

That's, that's it. Yeah. And we also in arts and sciences, we have a smaller accessibility team, that.

Super Aqua Team,.

The very targeted Aqua that helps the people in our area make things accessible. So they actually do a lot of captioning of videos which is their very favorite thing to do.

Oh, is that sarcasm?

No, I'm absolutely telling the truth. They will fight each other to do the captioning. No one wants to make a PDF accessible, but everyone wants to caption the videos.

The videos are where it's at, Amy. Understand that. So tell me one of your favorite things about working at LCC. What keeps you coming to work and so passionate about it?

I think it's the people. I love the people that I work with and I love that. I love the faculty and the students. There's just such a good energy. And you know, I've worked in academy, academia. Academia for quite a long time. 20 Years this week. And actually I worked at a college institute New Mexico before that as well, so. But being able to help students, I'm always. I don't get to deal. I don't get to deal with students as much now as I used to.

Okay.

But it's. It's just when you can help someone find the class that they need or. Or just help them on their way, it makes you feel like you're. You're really doing something.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I've. I've helped at welcome Week a couple times because my job, I'm not in the capacity to help students daily face to face like that. And what you said is so true. When you can help a student, hey, do you know where your class is? Do you know where you're going? Let me take you there. It is. I think college can be so stressful, especially for people who are just starting out. I mean, even if you've been going for a long time, it can be stressful. So when you can help somebody tangibly like that, and you see the relief and you see the connection being made, that is. I get it. It's like, it's really special.

It's really special to be able to help people really fulfill their dreams. This is what they. They want to do, and to help them do that, it makes you feel really good.

Now, you mentioned students working with students, and I know you work with student employees. Tell me a little about that.

I do. I've had. I've supervised student employees for. For many, many years now. We kind of teach them office etiquette and, you know, work on the work ethic and. And it's just. It's a wonderful situation to be in, to be able to mentor them and kind of teach them. My favorite part is when they come back and they tell me, you know, how what I taught them has helped them through the years. Yeah, I've stayed in touch with many, many of them and. And to watch them grow up and get the jobs that they really wanted and. Or the career that they've been looking for is. It's amazing. Heartwarming. It really is. It really is. I'm in it for the feels over. Yes.

That's just so heartwarming to me. And I think it's so important, like you said, teaching them those skills that are just important for any job, especially if it's their first job. Like the interpersonal skills, the office culture, how to answer emails, the phone. Like being a mentor in that way is so valuable. I was a student employee here at LCC in 2015, and I remember there was A lot of learning that happened, and it kind of set me up for my career, and it looked good on my resume.

Yes.

Really enjoyed it.

It really is.

It's.

It's. It's a great program that we have, and I'm so glad that we're able to do it.

Go, student employee. Shout out to all you student employees out there. All right, so how do you kind of achieve work life balance?

How do I achieve work life balance?

It's tough. It's tough.

Yeah. You. I really loved the remote work. I loved it when we were remote. I know that a lot of people struggled with it, but I had a good situation in that I didn't have small children at home or other things going on. So I know that I was very lucky in that regard. But being able to skip that commute was awesome.

And coming from Holt, that's a good 20, 30 minutes.

Yeah. But it takes up a big chunk of your day. And I didn't realize how much of my day I was giving away until I stopped doing it. You know what I mean?

What is this extra time? I can have some coffee, stroll to the kitchen table. Exactly.

And still be to work early.

Exactly. All right. What is a career highlight that you would say you're maybe most proud of? One of the things you.

I am proud that we have put the processes together in our area. We went through and we came up with. We were calling them standard operating procedures, but we changed the name just, you know, a little how to. Of how to do all the common tasks that we have from the point of view of the faculty and then from the point of the view of the administrators and staff, which, you know, like, the request comes in. This is how you put the request in.

Yes.

And then when you get the request, this is how you would fulfill it. Yes. So it's come in really handy. We've been using it for our onboarding. It saved time with, you know, we can train a lot of people with minimal effort once. Once they're together.

Yeah, that made it very effective.

It really did. And, you know, we go back and we review them once a year. So that takes a little time. But, you know, you don't have to, like, repeat how to do the same thing to, like, three new people in the same week. You can, you know, kind of share this document that shows this is step one, this is step two, this is step three, and so it saved a lot of time that way.

I would be proud of that, too.

I am really proud of it. Yeah.

Can I borrow those, Amy? Can you may.

Absolutely everybody can everybody.

Well, Amy, I'm so thankful to have you on the show today. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me.

Yes. I'm really glad that you're my co worker. I really do feel I learned so much from you, from processes to like when I first was hired in and sat down and shadowed with you. I remember I, I had a notebook full. I was like, yes, these are things I learned from Amy. So thank you. You're very valuable person here at LCC.

It was an absolute pleasure. Woo hoo.

Thank you so much for listening to who's that Star? The behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk to the employees at Lansing Community College. You can listen to this show and others on demand at LCCconnect.org. We spent some time today with Amy park who does a lot of behind the scenes in Arts and Science in the Arts and Science division. She's involved in many important projects from accessibility, experience, star power to mentoring student employees and much more. We've gotten to know one of the great people behind the scenes at LCC. Again, I'm your host, Julianna Blain. Please call me Juji. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to Who's That Star? Have a great day.