When Maureen Somerville received a message from her boss to meet him at 1:45 p.m., she was worried she had done something wrong.
I was thinking, ‘What have I done?’ said Somerville, who swipes the ID cards for students to get into the Massry Commons dining hall at Siena College. `I went into the room, and it was all set up with a podium up front. There were people dressed in suits. I thought my kids were supposed to be there.`
After first watching a priest talk, then one of her advisers and then hearing one the students she sees regularly at the dining hall speak, she realized it was an award ceremony for her.
Somerville has only been working at Siena College for nine months, and she was receiving the award for Staff Member of the Year, which was given to her by the Siena College Student Senate. Somerville said she was completely surprised and happy to get the award.
The students, though, knew she deserved it.
`I would definitely say she deserved the award,` said senior Caroline Costano, 21, who was a former resident assistant in Building 13, where the dining hall is located. `She’s putting herself in that job every single day and is pouring her heart into everyone around.`
Somerville has two sons attending the college, one a sophomore and the other a junior. Her previous job was as office manager at the Albany County Vault Corporation, a burial vaults manufacturing and delivery business. She left her job in 1990 when she had her first child and became a stay-at-home mother. When her two boys left for college, things became a little too quiet for her around the house.
While waiting at the doctor’s office for her daughter, who attends Shaker High School, she saw an ad for the position at Siena College. She figured that since she lived so close to the campus, it would be a good idea to apply.
`I applied to the position and got called the next day,` she said.
The job has turned out to be an amazing experience for Somerville. Now, instead of being mother to just her three children, she has a campus full of children to watch over. For example, if a student just got his or her wisdom teeth out, she’ll make sure to bring ice over, or if she sees students eating alone a few nights in a row, she’ll go over there and join them.
Students at the school feel comfortable enough to come to her with their problems, she said, and there is nothing being documented so no one else is going to hear about it if they don’t want them to.
`It’s such an eye opener because you don’t realize how hard it is for these kids,` she said. `All of a sudden they have to be on their own and go through a lot of difficult things.`
Father Dennis Tamburello, professor of Religious Studies and a friar in the new residence hall, said he sees the concern Somerville has for the students. She has a willingness to listen, he said, and constantly knows what is going on in their lives.
`She always on the pulse of things,` he said. `She does that in a very quiet way just by basically being a nice person and showing she cares If she sees something going on and is concerned, she will express that concern to the student or to us.`
Faculty and staff members are recognized every year but have usually been around for more than a year, Tamburello said, but Somerville had made such an impression on the students and the college itself that the award was certainly deserved.
`She’s making people feel like they count,` he said. `And she does it naturally.`
Somerville is constantly getting hugs from students, Costano said, mainly because she is going above and beyond what the college is asking from her. Her compassion doesn’t go unnoticed, and Costano said it is nice to have someone say more than just, `Hello.`
`I think a lot of people see her as showing love and interest in them,` she said, adding that it made a profound impact on residents in the new residence hall. `It’s the first year in the new building, and the doors were always closed. We were having trouble getting people out and conversing. [Having Somerville] made the feel of the new dorm having a more communal correlation for us.`
It’s nice for Somerville to be able to see her boys as often as she does, she said. She is able to have dinner with them at least two days out of the week. Still, she get Christmas cards, notes or letters from some of the kids at the college telling her that it’s almost like they have a second mother.
Somerville turned 50 in September and had people asking her what it was like going back to work at that age.
`I just said that it is great,` she said. `I just made a bunch of new friends. It makes you feel young.“