It’s Employee Appreciation Day today, and what better way to celebrate than to feature some of the amazing staff right here at SAMRU! SAMRU staff, which includes both full-time professional staff and part-time student and casual staff, work hard to run the Centres, programs and services, the Wyckham House food court, West Gate Social, events, and more! Keep reading to learn more about some of the talented people who work for SAMRU.

Casey | Junior Graphic Designer

What’s your position and what does it entail?
I’m the Junior Graphic Designer, and I work on creating designs to promote various SAMRU events and programs. It’s been nice to see my progress/improvement from when I first started with SAMRU two years ago to now.

What are you studying at MRU?
I’m a fourth-year Information Design student here at Mount Royal. Info design has given me more of a technical outlook on the design process and has helped me learn how to solve problems, conduct research, and design for a specific audience.

How long have you worked with SAMRU, and have you worked in any other positions at SAMRU?
I’ve worked part-time with SAMRU for almost two years. I was the Poster Display Assistant for two semesters (2021-2022), so I was responsible for printing and displaying all of SAMRU’s promotions across campus.

What’s your favourite part about your job?
I like that there’s a lot of flexibility, both schedule-wise and also there’s a lot of creative freedom for me to develop my design skills. There’s also a lot of opportunity to learn and practice new things. My coworkers are very supportive and encouraging which has helped my confidence as a designer.

What has been your favourite project that you’ve worked on at SAMRU?
Last summer I did some Pride Month illustrations for a blog series, which I enjoyed doing. I also worked on Super SAMRU World during my first internship in 2021, which was a game to get students engaged on campus for new student orientation. It was pixel art, which I’d never done before. I designed the 2021 Student Survival Guide, and then I designed the 2022 Student Survival Guide too, so it was cool to see my progress since the year before.

What is a piece of advice you want to share or something you’ve learned from your job?
Take initiative, but also don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s good to know how to learn on your own, but also important to ask for help when you need it.

Tell us something that might surprise us about you.
I took French immersion for 6 years.

What do you like to do outside of work?
I do art in my spare time, like painting and sculpting.

Do you have any pets?
I have two doves!

What’s your favorite place that you’ve traveled to?
My favourite trip was when I went to Paris with my family.

Muriel | Food Court Supervisor

What’s your position and what does it entail?
I’m the Food Court Supervisor. I supervise the employees that are working, make sure that the tables are cleaned properly and that the chairs are put back in, get any dirty trays and bring them to the service room, and if anything spills on the floor I go mop it up. I try not to sit around, I do the same thing that my staff is doing – I go and help them. 

I like my job – it’s something different for me because I’ve been a caregiver for over 30 years. I’ve taken care of elderly and special needs people, and handicapped people, I even worked on a school bus as an attendant. 

How long have you worked here?
I started in September. 

What’s your favourite part about your job?
To interact with the students. If they have a question, I answer, and I always have a smile on my face. If a student is sitting at a table and I’m putting chairs back in, they look at me and say thank you so much. I enjoy working here with the students.

What is a piece of advice you want to share or something you’ve learned from your job?
To have common sense – it’s a simple job; I don’t have to be asked to mop the floor or pick something up. If I have a question, I go and ask.

What do you like to do outside of work?
Outside of work? I work at home! I keep myself busy – I am a very busy person, and I don’t sit down. So I do this work, and I have a special needs client in a wheelchair. I’ve worked with her for 24 years! So I go make her dinner – there are four of us who work with her, so I give her supper on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I do it on Saturday and Sunday too. I keep myself active – my kids think I’m nuts – but I’m very active.

Do you have any pets?
No, but I love pets. I prefer dogs over cats, but I don’t have time to have a dog at home.

Lisa | Support Services Manager

What’s your position and what does it entail?
My title is Support Services Manager, so I oversee our food and financial support services for students. I also have the Student Advocacy Resource Centre (SARC) under my purview, which guides students through academic processes in the university, things like academic misconduct, hearings, and that kind of thing, and non-academic concerns like wellness planning. 

One more very important thing to mention is our volunteer tax clinic, which I have been involved in for the past seven years. That is where we train student volunteers to complete and file simple tax returns for our clients, who are usually students themselves!

How long have you worked with SAMRU, and have you worked in any other positions at SAMRU?
I started part-time in November 2003, so this is my 20th year here. When I started, we had a space in the basement called Copywrite, and it was a retail store. Copywrite had a year-round consignment bookstore, photocopiers and printers for student use, a TicketMaster, and a Canada Post franchise.

So I started as a part-time counter service staff there, eventually becoming the manager of that space. I worked as the manager until 2012, when I went on maternity leave, and came back in 2013. Copywrite closed during my leave, so I worked as the Catering and Venues Manager for a year.

I went on a second maternity leave in 2014, and when I came back in 2015, I became the Administration Manager. I did that for 7+ years before becoming the Support Services Manager last year…so I’ve dabbled in a few different areas!

What’s your favourite part about your job?
I think one of my favorite parts would be the people I work with. I work with an amazing team of individuals. Everyone I work with is kind, caring and genuine, and authentic, and I love that. I love the fact that it’s a nonprofit, that we’re not in it for the money, we’re motivated to do good, which is something that really appeals to me and my values. I appreciate the flexibility. Having children, I appreciate the ability to take some time off, or work from home; that flexibility piece is really great.

In my role specifically, one of the biggest things for me is being able to interact with students and see the changes and the value that the organization can bring to students’ lives, and getting their feedback. So, you know, feeding people in the Peer Support Centre and then hearing, “This is really great, thank you for providing us with this program.” It’s those positive words of affirmation that really mean a lot to me, and motivate me to do more and do better.

What has been your favourite project that you’ve worked on at SAMRU?
The first thing that comes to mind is probably the tax clinic, one reason being that I helped bring it here with another co-worker seven years ago. At the time, it wasn’t really in my area of work. I was more administrative, so I was doing human resources work behind the scenes, but somehow the organization let me be involved. I partnered with another coordinator who worked in the student services department at the time, and we got together and brought the tax clinic here.

What is a piece of advice you want to share or something you’ve learned from your job?
Cover all your bases. If you have a conversation with someone and you make promises, follow it up with an email. Have that written documentation – that was taught to me by a manager when I started here in 2003, and that’s really stuck with me.

What do you like to do outside of work?
I love music, I listen to music all the time, so I love going to see live shows, that’s probably my #1 thing. I also like live theatre, and while working with the Students’ Association, I also had a part-time job for about 6 years, where I was a front-of-house manager at a theatre. I currently volunteer at theatres around the city.

Tell us something that might surprise us about you.
When I was 18, I got hit in the face with a hockey puck and lost my two front teeth. Of course, the game stopped, and everyone was staring at me. I was embarrassed, but I was laughing. The trainer for the team came over and found my teeth because they had fallen out perfectly, so he collected them, helped me clean up, and I ended up at the dentist getting some emergency medical work done to put my teeth back in…I had my teeth back in my mouth for 10 years or so, but they had to be taken out, and now I have implants. So there’s that.

Do you have any pets?
I have a cat, her name’s Lucy, she’s about 15 years old, and then I have a dog whose name is Rudy, and he’s three now – he’s a terrier chihuahua mix, and Lucy is a long-haired calico. I grew up on a farm, so I’ve had many pets over the years – I’ve had cows, pigs, sheep, and donkeys – we even had a pet deer at one time.

Jason | Operations Coordinator

What’s your position and what does it entail?
I’m the Operations Coordinator for SAMRU, and I work under the Operations Manager, who oversees the business and building operations of  Wyckham House (food court tenants, rentals, etc) and West Gate Social. I fix things…sometimes break things…but mostly make sure things don’t break.

What are you studying at MRU?
I’m studying Marketing – I have one and a half years left. I’m taking a break semester right now, so I’ll find out in the fall how difficult it is to balance classes and a full-time job.

How long have you worked with SAMRU, and have you worked in any other positions at SAMRU?
I’ve been in this position for almost 3 months. I started in November in my current role, and before that, I worked at West Gate Social as front-of-house staff – I started there in September – so quite a rapid climb!

A few years ago, maybe around 2019, I was a casual staff with SAMRU for a while, where I helped set up for events and stuff. 

What’s your favourite part about your job?
It’s fun, it’s a little mix of everything…it’s a desk job, but it’s also physical labour, so it’s not just one thing. It’s a fun place to work, and there’s lots of interaction with other people.

What is a piece of advice you want to share or something you’ve learned from your job?
Sometimes you just gotta do it. It seems daunting at first, I remember starting out and I had a lot of imposter syndrome, cause I feel like everyone I work with has their degree and everything already, but you just gotta do it!

What’s your go-to WGS meal and drink?
The West Gate Burger, hands down. And then if you can, ask them to substitute the fries for Mexi Fries. For my drink, it’s a custom drink – it’s the Strawberry Basil Lemonade, but instead of using Sprite, ask them to use Coke, and it tastes like a gummy worm.

What do you like to do outside of work?
I guess this is kind of how I got the job, but I like working with my hands a lot…so a lot of hobbies I have are to do with that. Before getting this job, I did custom keyboards, but now I don’t really have time. I started working on watches recently though – it’s been a fun, but humbling, experience.

What’s your favourite video game?
At the moment, Cyberpunk, but I’m getting into Red Dead Redemption too.