February 2011, Issue 4
Visiting With...
Mary Smeltzer
Student Judicial Affairs, Office of Student Life, Administrative Associate II
Please share some biographical information with us. I was born and raised in San Antonio. My education included attending parochial schools through the 8th grade, attending high school at the oldest high school in NISD and graduating with a class of 730 students--the highest number of graduates in San Antonio that year. I attended San Antonio College majoring in pre-law. After a couple of years and getting certified as a paralegal, I realized law was not my cup of tea, so I left school and worked full time. I have worked at Education Service Center, Region 20, the University of Texas Health Science Center and have been at UTSA since 2006. As for my personal life, I married in 2000. I went from Sandoval to Smeltzer. It took me quite some time to get used to the name change but now, whenever someone refers to me by my maiden name it throws me for a loop. All I can do is laugh about it. My life also includes a very active 8 year old little girl, Alexis. She is our pride and joy.
What is your main focus in your office? I am the Student Judicial Affairs in-take person. I receive all the referrals that come through our office, enter in database, and prepare them for assignment. I also assist any staff, faculty or students that may have questions on completing referrals and/or answering questions that a student may have. I do background checks for departments. I occasionally assist with any outreach programs that the Student Judicial Affairs staff participate in. The past 5 years, I have served as the SECC representative for Student Judicial Affairs and the Office of Student Life.
How do you interact with other Student Affairs departments? Other campus departments? I interact with other departments by assisting with questions they may have regarding the Student Judicial Affairs process for referring students and conducting background checks. I assist staff, who facilitate our award winning E.P.I.C. Journey Sanction Model. And, occasionally, I will interact during an outreach program.
Why do you like working at UTSA? I appreciate the camaraderie that is present--especially among the Student Affairs staff--and the feeling of being a team. My previous jobs did not have that and it made it very hard to work and feel appreciated. At UTSA, I have had the total opposite. Everyone makes it a point to work together and not against one another. We are all working towards the same goal-- providing our students with a successful future.
Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with us? As well as being a full-time employee, wife and mother, I am also a part-time UTSA student. I am majoring in Education (EC-6) with an ESL Endorsement. None of this would be possible without the support of my family and especially the Student Judicial Affairs and Student Life offices. Their encouragement pushes me every semester to try even harder. I am happy to say that, for three semesters, I have been named to the COEHD’s Part-Time Dean’s List. This reinforces that teaching is my passion.
In my down time, I enjoy spending time with my family, arts and crafts, scrapbooking and reading. Lately, my past time is visiting teacher resource stores and book stores (I am like a kid in a candy store), collecting items for my future classroom. I have been told that it is never too early to start doing this. Let’s just say that I am enjoying using this excuse.
Getting to Know...
New Office of the Registrar
The Office of the Registrar is happy to announce that Flor Hernandez has joined Academic Publications as the new Multimedia Editor II. We welcome Flor to our team and to the Division of Student Affairs.