Columns:: Campus Closeup

since 12/15/98

Columns::September 29, 2003

Priority seating: University sets spring 2004 policies for transfer admissions
Arts and sciences dean will step down at end of current academic year
Blue Key Honor Society recognizes contributions of four ‘distinguished’ citizens
Plan protects trees in construction zones
Hispanic Heritage Month observance gets under way
Front Line Leaders
The perfect solution: Computer-based teaching revolutionizes freshman chemistry labs
Molecular genetics facility is renamed Integrated Biotechnology Labs
Newsmakers
Garden bargain: State Botanical Garden gets ready for its annual fall plant sale
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Campus News

Head waitress at the Georgia Center’s Savannah Room for five years, Jonie Anthony received this year’s H.E.R.O.E.S Hospitality Award from the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau. (Photo by Peter Frey)

Campus Closeup

JONIE ANTHONY
Head Waitress
The Savannah Room
Food Services

JOB DESCRIPTION: “My job includes setting up the dining room with tablecloths, silverware, glasses, plates and linen. I make sure the reservations at each table have the right amount of chairs and place settings. Usually I have to prepare the president’s dining room, which is a separate room where VIPs meet on occasion.
“I do my best to furnish all that is needed to serve customers quickly and efficiently during their lunch hour. I usually have to train all the new waitresses and waiters. If there is a meeting in the president’s dining room, I am usually required by my supervisors to be the server. I am expected to make sure everything is perfect.”

A TYPICAL DAY: “When we start our day, we prepare everything to be ready for customers’ arrivals. Most of our customers are faculty and staff having business meetings while they eat. They are focused on their meeting, so my job is to try to do all the thinking for them concerning their meal needs, then they can concentrate on business. I may have five tables going at once, yet I must be fast and efficient because customers need to get back to work.”

MOST REWARDING PART OF MY JOB: “Knowing that I did an excellent job and being appreciated for it. Knowing that my supervisors respect me. I am a lot older than most of the waitresses here and also have four children ages 10, 13, 15 and 17 so I have a lot in common with my customers. I think people know I enjoy my job. I love all the people I work with in the kitchen and dining room. One of the benefits of working in a restaurant is we get to eat lunch together every day and eat really great food while enjoying each other’s company. The time we spend together encourages good relationships and morale.
“I was really honored to receive this years’s hospitality H.E.R.O.E.S Award, which is given by the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau for excellent service.“I have to thank my regular customers for nominating me and my supervisors, Linda and Lisa, for pulling for me.”

YEARS IN CURRENT POSITION: Five.

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCES: “I was born and raised in Hawaii and started waitressing in Waikiki. When I was 18, I moved to Missouri and earned a degree as a medical assistant.
“Later I went back to Hawaii and became a medical assistant but realized being around blood made me queasy. I went back to being a waitress in Waikiki for about four years.
“Then I got married, started having babies and became a stay-at-home mom for about 10 years. During that time, I learned many skills--managing finances for a household of six on one income brought out a lot of creativity in me.
“During those years, I also did a lot of volunteer work at our church. I home-schooled my oldest his first year of school. When my youngest started kindergarten, I came to work at the Georgia Center.”

IF I WASN’T DOING THIS JOB, I WOULD MOST LIKE TO: “Be a nutritionist or a physical therapist.”

OFF-THE-JOB INTERESTS: “Other than spending time with my family, I like to exercise at the Ramsey Center, go on dates with my husband and play Frisbee and volleyball. Listening to the upbeat band at Compass Community Church where I attend is also one of the highlights of my week.”

FAVORITE MUSIC: “I like jazz and Christian music by artists such as Jackie Valaquez, Third Day and 4HIM. I also like to listen to light rock.”

BOOKS I WOULD RECOMMEND TO OTHERS: “Since I have teenagers, I have been reading a lot of books about them. The culture our kids are growing up in today is so different than the one I grew up in. I want to learn as much as I can to be a better parent.
“I would recommend Understanding Your Teenager by Wayne Rice and David Veerman and Mary Pipher’s Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, which is very interesting because it helps you understand what happens to your daughter between the ages of 12 to 16.”

THE PERSON I MOST ADMIRE: “Oprah Winfrey. She is a very wise person and has been through a lot herself so she can help lots of people.”

THE ISSUE THAT CONCERNS ME MOST ABOUT TODAY’S WORLD: “The way kids are being raised these days is scary. We have to fear the teenagers--they’re shooting kids in schools. I think that if more moms stayed at home to raise the kids with discipline and more dads didn’t take off on their kids leaving the moms to do it all, this world would be a better place.”

--Leslie Wiggins

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