Library News & Events: Farewell to Christina Jan.13th, 2012

Christina Plante and Professor Lori Crane

A farewell letter from Reference Librarian, Pat Alvarez, Christina's supervisor
Christina will be greatly missed. She worked like a beaver when she approached a new task. I remembered when she first started working, an older patron came to tell us that he could not believe how hard Christina worked just by observing her.

When she first came to us 5 years ago, she was just a kid out of high school. I saw a progression of maturity as the years went by. At that time, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go back to school since she had to quit during her first semester for money reasons. It didn’t take but a little encouragement to get her to pursue her dreams of an education. Her love of learning was something to be admired. She didn’t just go to school for a diploma, she went to school mostly to learn something new. If she took a class that she felt she was not learning; she was not happy. It took her a few years to decide what she really wanted to study, since she seemed to like everything. She went from wanting to study history, to creative writing and finally she found her niche in Communications. She decided she wanted to be a Speech professor just like her mentor professor, Lori Crane. She even considered Librarianship as a “maybe” in her future.

Sorting Magazines

She thrived when she had many things going on. I would be amazed and scared for her when I learned about her PTK projects, her honor’s projects, the many charities that she offered her time to, the writing for the school newspaper, her school projects, her family responsibilities and working full-time. But the times she didn’t have a crazy schedule, she had to look for something extra to do. I was always reprimanding her for overextending herself, thus not getting enough sleep. This caused her to be late for work…. But those days that she was late she usually made them up by staying after hours of her own accord.

I never saw Christina get mad at any of the people she helped. No matter how little sleep she got the night before, which was frequently, she still helped the students with a smile on her face. Even when students made her angry she kept helping them and afterwards would come to my office door where she then would vent to me about them… but never said anything to their face.

One thing that Christina definitely did not like is when people called her by a different name. Some would call her Christine or a variation of that name. She didn’t have a problem correcting them time and time again. She would come and tell me that she could not understand why people could not remember that her name was CHRISTINA. Then I started making the mistake of spelling her name in Spanish (Cristina) when I wrote her e-mails. She would not hesitate to correct me even after explaining that I was used to writing it that way.

Party Time and Great Food
Christina and Pat

She loved to learn new things. Her position was of a Library Assistant, but she when Pat Horlick left before Loretta was hired, a while passed and I didn’t have anyone else to help me with the Periodicals duties. So she assumed some of the responsibilities of Pat’s position because she was able to do them so well and willingly. There was not a thing that I asked her to do that she didn’t tackle without complaining. In fact, she would always ask me to teach her more. One of the reasons I took her under my wings was because I saw myself in her when I was her age.

Dessert time!

I feel she brought to work her youthful dreams and optimism; a breath of fresh air that is wonderful to have around especially for those of us that are way passed that stage in our lives……We’ll miss you Christina and we are all rooting for you to achieve all your dreams.