When walking down the ominous hall into the president’s office at any college or university, it is always reassuring to see a helpful, smiling face upon the person seated at the front desk.

June Johnson, administrative assistant to the president, is that smiling face at Park University.

Johnson grew up 100 miles south of Parkville, in the small farming community of Nevada, Mo.

She came to Parkville in 2001 when a friend informed her of a position that was open at Park University. She applied and was hired in the financial aid office, where she said was a good place for her to start her career at Park.

“I learned a lot about interaction with students, faculty and other staff,” Johnson said. “Understanding financial aid is helpful no matter what office you’re in because you run across students or staff or someone who needs help.”

About a year later, Johnson moved to the Academic Affairs office, where she worked as administrative assistant with interim Vice President Greg Plumb before Dr. Michael Droge took on the role of provost and vice president.

After a few years in Academic Affairs and even earning her associate’s degree in management from Park in December 2004, Johnson left Park and decided to travel back home to be with her family. But, she could not stay away for long.

An opportunity came in 2010 for Johnson to return to Park to work with then President Droge in the President’s office, where she has been since and now works as administrative assistant to the president.

In that time, Johnson has also been working towards a Bachelor of Science degree in human resources management, for which she said she is taking “one class at a time.”

As the first face anyone sees when they walk into the office, Johnson works hard at what she does for the president.

From handling requests for meetings with the president, dealing with external and internal correspondence, sending numerous emails every day and directing incoming traffic through the office, Johnson said her days become busy quickly.

“The days go by rather quickly because there’s a lot to get done,” she said.

Johnson gives a lot of credit to interim president David Fowler and Laure Christensen, executive assistant to the president, and said the three of them make a “really good team” and always help one another.

“If I need help with something, Laure is in here helping me and vice versa,” she said. “Our team is a great team and it takes a lot to get everything done in this office, all the meetings, all the events, correspondence, and things like that. It takes a lot of good coordinating.”

But like any office job, Johnson deals with her own set of challenges each day, especially when she not only manages her own schedule but the university president’s schedule as well.

One of her biggest challenges, she said, is having to say ‘no’ and trying to say it in a positive way.

“Not that it’s ‘no, I’m going to shut the door,’ but ‘no, this isn’t the appropriate office. Go through protocol,’” she said. “That is difficult because you always want to try to help; however, we’re not always the office to come to.”

Johnson also said that working with the new interim president this year has been one of her more positive challenges and said there have been some noticeable changes since his arrival at the university.

“I think the change is starting to work for someone you don’t know at all versus knowing Dr. Droge as well as I did from the years of prior service and then serving,” she said. “You get comfortable and kind of know that person, what their likes, dislikes, how they would handle a situation and how they wouldn’t.

“With President Fowler coming in, he doesn’t know us, our system, and we don’t know his…It’s almost a double-learning, in a sense. He needs to learn us and we need to learn his preferences. The team works really well. We’re in a learning institution and I always say ‘You never stop learning,’ so it’s been kind of refreshing to realize ‘oh, I am learning today,’ or ‘I could have done that differently.’”

But even with all the changes, challenges and day-to-day routine, Johnson said Park is like another home for her.

“You kind of fall for this place,” she said. “You become – it’s kind of that saying – a family, but I still have many friends from when I was here before and then ones that have gone that I still keep in contact with.”

Being surrounded by people she considers close to her has given Johnson some fond memories while working at Park, one of those being when she received her associate’s degree.

“My coworkers sent out an email to staff and faculty and said, ‘We’re going to put a book together, so send something to put in the book,’” she said. Jonson said she was overwhelmed with the kind words from faculty, staff and her work study students.

Another highlight while she has worked at Park adds more proof to how Johnson sees the family side at Park University.

“Shortly after I returned the second time, my mother passed away,” she said, “and the President and his wife, Molly, and my coworkers, Laure, Bobbi [Stidham] and Janice [Sieminski], drove down to the service to be there for me.

“That’s a hundred miles, it doesn’t seem like much. It was a stormy day and it rained really badly. But just the thought…it touched me.”

But it is not just in her time working at Park where she has seen family-like actions around campus but in other departments.

Johnson said one thing that makes Park such a great place for its students and faculty is seeing people go out of their way to help one another.

From staff or faculty members being sick and others taking meals to them or offering to assist with getting a coworker to a treatment, Johnson said there is usually no room left for others to sign up to help because so many have already offered.

She also said it tends to be the same way with departments and individuals who hire work study students each year.

“You almost adopt those students, in a sense,” she said. “You follow them through their career, through their time at Park, and you’re just so proud and you see their ups and downs. I think that is the family part there.

“When anybody reaches out, and sometimes it can be something that they don’t ask for help but there’s a need, then a group will get together and make sure that need is taken care of.”

One aspect Johnson said she would like to see Park work to improve is interaction between students, faculty and staff – especially to allow the students to get to know more staff and make connections.

“We may say no to something,” she said, “but we’re also here to say yes or to help or to lend guidance. Students, faculty and staff could work better together. Students are the reason we’re here.”

But aside from working hard every day at Park, Johnson finds enjoyment through watching the television program “Criminal Minds”; reading murder mystery books; walking through English Landing Park when the weather is nice; spending time with her husband, Charlie, her children and grandchildren; and cooking with her granddaughter.

Though no matter where she is, Johnson said Park has been and is another home for her.

“It is my home,” she said. “I spend as much time here as I do at home almost…I’ve got great friends here who are like family and that means a lot.”