Ellen Nole
Major: History
Her Campus: Why did you decide to major in history?
Ellen Nole: I initially said that I would not major in history. I specifically said that this is the one thing I will not do except for science because that would have been impossible. I found that I only like taking history classes, like a lot of them – up to the point that I was declaring after having taken a class required for the major. I was like no I’m not going to do it. I would never be a history major – that’s useless. And here I am, several mistakes later.
HC: Do you know what you want to do with your history major?
EN: I do, sort of, a little bit. I would like to become a public librarian in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is what I’d like to do. I interned in the library system over the summer and I got to know a lot of people. I enjoyed it a lot. Library science schools tend to like any sort of general humanities related major, so I’m going to have a degree that will help there. If I want to go into archives, it’ll go well there too because our archives are not great and I would love to work on them.
HC: That’s an interesting path that most people don’t seem to be pursuing.
EN: It’s just really fun. Libraries being another thing that I swore I would not do with my life – I specifically said no, I would never be a librarian – so words I have said before. So you know, you can really take me at my word.
HC: How did you start working at the Middle Ground?
EN: Sophomore year, at the beginning of the year I applied for the Middle Ground job. I had worked two summers at an actual Starbucks back home, so I was like yeah I think I can do this, this is really good. I’m going to get this job. I did not get the job. But then whoever they hired instead of me apparently was not great, so they ended up getting fired or quitting – I don’t really know – it might have been an encouraged to leave sort of situation, and so I got an email saying “Hey are you still interested in working at the MG”, and then I never left.
HC: Does the Middle Ground feel like home to you?
EN: Not in like a positive way, but definitely one of if not the defining experience of college for me is working here.
HC: How so?
EN: Everything for me is framed around the Middle Ground. If I look back at memories, most of them are here. Especially this year because I’m always thinking about the middle ground this year, and I’m always worried something is going to go wrong. It’s just who I’ve become.
HC: How did you get the student manager position?
EN: Mostly by being the only one left. The middle ground staff last year had four seniors, one person went abroad, one person quit, and then there was me. And done. I’d like to think I would have gotten it anyway because I do care way more about the middle ground then I should, and I really want us to serve good coffee and be nice to people and be clean. I care way more about that then I should.
HC: Have you had some rough moments at MG this year?
EN: Fall semester there was a period for three weeks where there wasn’t a single day I didn’t go to Middle Ground because I’m the student manager, so if a problem happened I would get a call. I would come down and everything was breaking. We were running out of things constantly. It was a mess. But that’s in the past now, where it belongs.
HC: Do you really enjoy having this position or has it been stressful?
EN: It’s a little stressful, it’s a little bit beaten me down. I almost don’t want to say that because I am currently trying to convince someone to take over for me. I need to be telling people oh it’s the best, I love it so much. It’s so much fun. So that’s my official answer. I love it. I do. It’s terrible, but it’s fun. I feel like I’m learning a lot about how to manage people and how to manage my own stress because I have a hard time not taking middle ground problems to heart. I’m trying to get better at not being personally devastated when we run out of ice because that was an issue at the beginning of the year.
HC: How do you guys run out of ice?
EN: Our ice machine breaks down a lot. It’s just gone right now. You have the ice you have and you run out of ice. It’s just sad. But we’ve moved past that now. We’re doing so much better. Slowly but surely.
HC: Is this semester going better?
EN: It’s so much better because everyone is really good at their jobs. They know what they’re doing. Everything has broken so many times, it can’t get that much worse.
HC: What are some life lessons you gotten from working at the MG?
EN: I’ve found that generally if you’re nice to someone they will be nice to you? That sounds so vague. So if I’m having a bad day, I really like coming in and working a lot. Like I had just turned in the worst paper I had ever written in my life and came here not during my shift and just worked for an hour because I was so mad at myself for writing a terrible paper. But I found that being nice to people and being able to ask them how their day is going and smile at them can actually make them feel better. I know it’s made me feel better a lot. It makes you feel like you’re a decent human being who is contributing something good to the world which is nice. Also it’s really easy to make someone’s day better. That’s about it. Also if you steam soy over 140 the sugar inside of it burns and it doesn’t taste as good. Which is why you should steam soy to a lower temperature than you steam normal milk.
HC: What’s your favorite coffee drink?
EN: There’s so much coffee available. It kind of gets overwhelming. When people first start working here, they tend to make several drinks during their shift because you just tend to get overwhelmed with all the possibilities of things you can make. I really like decaf drinks because I can’t do coffee. I love coffee, but if I drink it after four, I do not sleep because I am seventy years old. Most of the time I make a Grande Iced Americano with an extra shot of Toffee Nut Syrup.
HC: What else are you involved in on campus that you’re really passionate about?
EN: I’m in two organizations and I have another job.
HC: Wow, what do you not do?
EN: Sleep! Actually homework, real talk. Last semester I started working as a Logan Fellow. Through that I help out at The Ernest Withers Collection. They have these rooms they have that are just filled with boxes photos Withers took, and Rhodes is helping them archive those and document them so they know what they have and can start putting them online which would be really cool. We get to look at all these pictures that Withers took through his forty years that he lived in Memphis. There are so many photos. Hopefully the gallery will be able to be better now that they know what they have in their collection. It’s going to be great. So I do that and am also co-president of First Book which is an organization – we do the used book sale outside of Barrett every semester and raise money to give brand new books to children in need. It’s a great organization. We give books to kids. It’s really hard to disagree with what we do. I like that about it. And then I am treasurer of the Gay Straight Alliance.
HC: It seems like what you do now relates fairly well to what you want to be doing once you graduate.
EN: It all sort of lines up. Books, archives, connecting with community, and customer service.
HC: Do you feel like everything you’ve done at Rhodes has helped you prepare for your next step in life?
EN: I sure hope so.