For 22-year-old me, this was my dream job. Ever since I graduated from Longwood in 1993 I wanted to be working in fraternity and sorority life. But life had other plans and, for one reason or another, I couldn’t get into it. Now I’m at a place in my life where my children are in college or have graduated from college and I had the freedom to apply for that dream job.
Previously I worked at Old Dominion University. I was the program coordinator of Monarch Teach, so I worked with the math and science majors who were getting teaching licenses. I was a math teacher for 17 years. I got my master’s degree in higher education at ODU. While I was working on my master’s degree I got a teaching job. But I kept volunteering for my sorority and kept involved in the fraternity and sorority world.
My daughter, Madison Levine ‘22, just graduated from Longwood this past May. She works for the Target Distribution Center in Suffolk. My husband and I own a couple of properties here in Farmville so the whole plan was to retire here. I had been joking with Tim Pierson that I had a five-year plan and he needed to help find me a job. I keep telling people he took my five-year plan and made it a five-week plan. I was the first student Tim met at Longwood when he arrived in 1992, so this is a very full-circle moment for me. I am excited to work with the students in general. They come with what they think are problems and they just need to talk it through with you. Sometimes students need a supporter and cheerleader—to feel like someone is in their corner.
In many ways, this is a lot like coming home. After I graduated from Longwood I worked for my sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha, at the national level. I was a leadership consultant so I was traveling to 37 college campuses a year. I’ve been on a lot of college campuses in the past 30 years. There’s just something about the friendliness of this campus. You walk by somebody and they at least look you in the face and say hello. Even at ODU I’d walk by students and say “Good Morning,” and they would seem startled that I had spoken to them. Coming from here, I thought everyone spoke to each other when you walked by. I didn’t know that people didn’t do that. It’s very nice to be back on campus and to have that welcoming feeling and kindness that is here again. You don’t realize how much you miss it until it’s happening again.
Julie Wiley Ramsey ’93
Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life
#HumansOfLongwood
Leave a Comment