April 24, 2003

Staff profile: Matthew Schauer

photo by Mary Hanlon

Title: Manager of undergraduate admission services

What do you do there? I supervise a large staff made up of full-time, temporary and work-study employees. My primary responsibility is to ensure that prospective students, applicants, parents, counselors, alumni and colleagues receive the best possible service during the admission process. It is a pretty stressful task, but we pretty much have it down to a science by now.

What do you like best about your job? I like the management aspect – working with the people I have around me. We have a great staff. I also enjoy helping people with the admissions process. It is an extremely stressful time for high school seniors and even more so nowadays for the counselors. I like settling everyone down and letting them know that their information or applications are in good hands.

How long have you been on your job? I’ve been on my current job about 18 months. I joined Northwestern in March 2001 as the transfer student specialist for the Office of Admission. I applied for and got this position about five months later.

What did you do before that? Before coming to Northwestern, I was living in California, working for the federal government. I was the supervisor of a Web site for the General Services Administration. I was there about two years. Before that, I spent a semester doing an internship with the United Olympic Committee in San Diego. I worked with the athletes, interviewing them so when the media came on campus and the athletes weren’t available to sit down and talk, I would talk on their behalf about what they were up to. I also worked a lot with the medical staff and the administrative staff.

Why did you come back to the Midwest? I decided I wasn’t going any further in my job, so I packed up the car and drove home. Also, my brother and his wife were about to have a baby. I wanted to be closer to my nephew, and not just be “that” uncle in California.

What are your plans for the future? Down the road, I’d like to pursue a master’s degree. I like the Learning and Organizational Change program at the School of Education and Social Policy.

What do you do for fun? I love taking black and white photographs. I also do a lot of reading. I enjoy non-fiction adventure books at the moment. I guess it kind of reminds me of how I was brought up. My dad is a big outdoors guy and when I was younger he dragged me through hiking excursions in New Mexico, camping in Alaska and canoeing in Canada. At the time I hated it, but now I am grateful for the experiences.

— Katharine Duke