After 21 years of serving both the students and the faculty of Transylvania University in various positions, Director of Special Projects Deana Ison of the Office of the President will be moving on to new endeavors. A farewell lunch will be held for Ison Thursday, Oct. 6 at 12:30 p.m. on the second floor of Old Morrison
Ison has contributed greatly to the Transy community, but the contributions that she is most proud of are mostly related to her time working in the admissions office.
During her time as a Transy student, Ison was a history and psychology double major who was assigned to do her work study in the registrar’s office. This is where she first got a taste of the administrative side of college, and she started to consider acquiring this type of job after graduation.
On completing her four years of enrollment at Transy, Ison accepted a position in the Transylvania admissions office, and she never imagined how passionate she would become in regards to her work with potential students. She started her work in the admissions office in 1995, and even though there is usually a lot of overturn in admissions, Ison did not follow suit; her fifteen years in the office made her the longest-serving admissions worker to ever come through Transy.
“I loved every minute of it,” she said about her recruitment of over 1,000 students.
“My proudest accomplishment is every student that I helped with the transition from high school to college,” she said. “I enjoyed being a part of one of the biggest decisions that these high school students had ever had to make. Being a trusted advisor and confidante for both the students and their parents was easily the highlight of my professional career.”
Being a trusted advisor and confidante for both the students and their parents was easily the highlight of my professional career.
This, though, was not even close to the only accomplishment that Ison achieved or contribution that she made while working at Transy. Ison ran the W.T. Young Scholarship program for ten years, and she also is the reason that t-shirts are given to the students who take a tour of the campus; the latter is a result of her overhaul in 2007 of the campus visit program at Transy.
She also collaborated with the admissions office at the University of Kentucky in order to create a workshop for new high school admissions counselors, whose goal was to help them become more educated on how to help high schoolers to understand the college administration and financial aid process. This was a project that she was involved in for ten years.
Ison was also the first ever person from Transy to be elected to serve on the College Board Southern Region Council.
After 15 loyal years in admissions, Ison transitioned to work in the President’s Office as an executive assistant, which she has been doing for six years. During her time in this role, she was proud to have the opportunity to launch the pilot term of the 100 Doors Mentoring Program.
I have had an emotionally fulfilling career at Transy, and I still keep in touch with many of the students who I mentored and recruited.
“I have had an emotionally fulfilling career at Transy, and I still keep in touch with many of the students who I mentored and recruited,” she said.
Part of the reason that her career was so satisfying is that she was able to see Transy through three different perspectives: as a student, as an admissions worker, and as a member of the President’s Office.
“Transy is more special because of how I was able to see Transy through the eyes of the students who I recruited,” she says, adding that after a little bit of a change of scenery, students just may see her back around campus.
