Amid an influx of incoming students, UCA welcomed new Director of Admissions Courtney Mullen. As a current UCA graduate student, she is a new face in the workplace and on campus.
Mullen grew up in Farmington, Arkansas, before heading to college at Arkansas Tech University. While completing her bachelor’s degree, Mullen began working her first admissions job as a recruiter and admissions counselor at Tech. She said she had always been plugged into her college experience, so she had established connections that set her up for an interview, which ended up landing her that job for a year.
After that, Mullen earned her master’s degree at Tech and landed a four-year admissions job as director of graduate support services for the Arkansas Tech Graduate School. When she later went to pursue her PhD in leadership studies at UCA, she saw an opening for the director of admissions, which she said she had always considered her dream job.
In her new position, she is gearing up for the upcoming challenges this campus has to offer. Her job is an overall comprehensive role that faces the trials and tribulations of the recruitment process.
Mullen said she plans to discuss new strategies for building a student database system for the online recruitment process. Mullen will also delegate certain groups and committees for improving the realms of admissions, such as new scholarship committees.
While she is still adjusting to campus life herself, Mullen said she was enthusiastic to give guidance and advice to new students. Her first piece of advice is for students to give themselves a break, because people are too hard on themselves.
Mullen said some people have a preset notion of what college is going to be like before coming onto campus and sometimes, they just need to go where the wind takes them.
Mullen said college is what a student makes of it, so to have a good college experience, students have to actually have experiences.
Mullen said getting involved helps students form the greatest friends and connections, and she said getting involved helped get her to where she wanted to be.
For help with recruitment, visit Mullen in her office at Bernard Hall 101.
photo from uca.edu
