CONNECTING WITH . . . ANGELA THOMPSON
Get to know APU community members involved in the Eiro Project, the university’s adoption of an innovative web-based software system.
Angela Thompson
Associate Director
Graduate Admissions
She commutes 500 miles each week to work at APU as the associate director of graduate admissions. This youth pastor’s wife loves fun and games. While few people know she’s a hide-and-go-seek aficionado, she’s not playing games with this project. Meet Angela.
What do you do at APU?
As associate director, my job covers two distinct areas. I’m responsible for
overseeing all processing in graduate admissions. And pre-Eiro, I worked with
doctoral students in an admissions enrollment role.
How have you been involved in the project?
I’ve been identifying all of our business processes. I then compare those to
see how they relate to IFAS and PeopleSoft. About 80-90 percent of my work
week is spent in the project trailer building data tables, attending meetings,
troubleshooting, and assisting other admissions areas.
What are you hoping will come out of this project?
I’m hoping that, in the end, we will have a much more streamlined process and
dynamic way of interacting with prospective students.
What kind of challenges does this project bring?
For me personally, this process has been difficult because I’m an analytical
person. My challenge is trusting that everything will come together. I see how
certain pieces of the software work, but I have to trust that this will all
flow when put together.
Another challenge lies in deadlines. My team has had to learn how to meet a deadline without sacrificing any of the accuracy or quality of what we’re doing.
What’s the coolest part of this project for you?
The friendships I’ve developed on the project team are awesome. It’s a
blessing to move beyond just a positive working relationship to forming true
friendships.
How do you maintain a healthy work balance?
I can confidently say that I do maintain a balance. I leave work at work. I
have a 45-mile commute, so in between APU and my house, I truly do let the
stress and worries go. Also, my husband and I choose not to have Internet at
home. That’s been a great boundary to keep work out of our home.
What have been the unexpected learnings?
It’s been surprising to see how the different admissions areas do things. I’ve
learned better business processes from undergraduate and CAPS admissions areas
that I’ve applied to my office—the collaboration has been great.
How has this enabled you to partner differently with your team?
Communication has improved drastically with my Eiro team as well as with my
office. Not being physically present in my office four days of the week has
forced me to be more proactive in the way I communicate, and more intentional
in the way I connect with people in my office.
It’s 10 a.m. on Saturday morning; what have you done so far?
I may have rolled over once or twice by that point, but I’m definitely still
in bed asleep. That’s the one morning I don’t set the alarm—I just sleep
in.
What are some common misconceptions about the Eiro project?
I think people assume things will become completely automatic in the new
system. Many things will be greatly improved, but not completely automatic.
There’s still training involved and steps to learn in PeopleSoft.
How will the new system make your job easier?
Ultimately, it will streamline some of our processes and provide more
automation for our processing staff. PeopleSoft will make it easier to manage
communications with prospective students.
What do you want the university to know about the Eiro Project?
For this project to succeed, it’s going to take a lot of patience and openness
to change on the part of the university community. If the APU team gets on
board and is open to transition, then the end result will be a great system
that helps the university to move forward and serve students well.
