By Caitlin Nearhood, university intern
Sometimes, weird things happen when students work at the Marbeck Center desk.

“The weirdest thing that’s happened to me was when someone called about retirement communities around Bluffton,” junior Alexi Parsons, one of the students who works the desk and answer the university phone, said. “I didn’t know what to do, so I looked up retirement communities in Bluffton. I know other workers get strange calls, too.”

Parsons, a native of West Chester, Ohio majoring in early childhood education, is in her third year of working as a Marbeck Center desk manager, a job she says is “definitely a people-person job.”

“Workers should be outgoing, personable, and know the major things about Bluffton, like where Centennial Hall is,” she said.

Tasks of a Marbeck Center desk manager include answering the phone, transferring calls, bringing people their packages, putting papers or other important things in student, faculty, and staff’s mailboxes, making sure the televisions around Marbeck Center are turned on and working, changing the date on the marquee, and put the new events schedule for the day on the bulletin board.

With everything she has to do, it seems like Parsons has a hard job. In reality, it isn’t.
“Everything is pretty self-explanatory,” she said.

Occasionally, she faces challenges while working.

“The hardest part is when people call and ask for directions. I have to figure out where they are and help them figure out how they can find their way to campus,” she said.

Her favorite part?

“I love being personable to people who walk by and helping people with whatever they need help with. I also love the staff here and [boss] Mark Bourassa,” she said as her boss walked by.

Overall, Parsons knows that this is the job for her.

“I love helping people know about Bluffton more, whether it’s incoming students or anyone. I love helping them with what they need."