Linda Shultes is a Girl Scout at heart.
As a Junior Girl Scout troop leader and co-coordinator of the Pinckney area’s Girl Scout product sales, she lends a helping hand to young girls wanting to live by the Girl Scout law.
“These girls have great ideas and they keep me feeling young,” says Shultes, an administrative assistant in the Department of Philosophy. From helping raise money to planning troop meetings to recruiting new members, she stays very involved with the organization’s local endeavors. In fact, she has done so much for the group that in April 2008 she received the Girl Scout Adult Appreciation pin.
But Shultes is no stranger to doing good deeds. A lifelong volunteer, she is an involved member of the Shalom Lutheran Church. “Right now, I am coordinating a team putting together an in-house pictorial directory,” Shultes says.
Her desire to help others has helped shape her career path, as well. An Ann Arbor native, Shultes began working for the university when she was 15. “I started working at the Michigan League cafeteria,” she says.
Shultes worked as a permanent employee for about 15 years before leaving the university after the birth of her twins in 1987. “I opened a licensed daycare home,” she says, “only to close it six years later to reapply for jobs at the university.”
She returned to work in the Department of Philosophy in 1993, and has been working there ever since. She now manages the graduate program in the department, from first admissions to helping new graduates get their first jobs.
She says her favorite part of the job is helping students “to smooth the bumps in the road as they pursue their PhDs.” Shultes loves the fact that she shares in their hardships and achievements. “Every time one of our students wins an award, I am notified before the student,” she says. “I am able to share in their joy.”
Shultes and her husband, Skip, plan to retire in seven to eight years. At that time they will get more involved with community activities. “We plan to join the Hamburg Senior Center,” she says. “We would love to participate in the trips and social activities they offer.” In addition, Shultes wants to spend more time volunteering at her church and participating in social activities hosted by the German Park Recreation Club.
Whether at a desk or in a Girl Scout troop, Shultes always is willing to lend a hand. The biggest rewards, she believes, are the relationships she develops with others.
“I have attended weddings, rejoiced when babies are born, and grieved the loss of faculty, students and friends,” she says. But those experiences, Shultes explains, are what make helping others so worthwhile.
The weekly Spotlight features staff members at the university. To nominate a candidate, please contact the Record staff at [email protected].
