By: Lillie Lelko
Sharon Rogers, assistant director of Records and Advisement at Southern Adventist University,
is retiring after nearly 50 years of service.
Rogers, a 1977 graduate of Southern, has been working in the Records department since she
was a student worker. Now, 49 years later, she looks forward to retirement.
“I just felt it was time,” Rogers said in an interview with the Accent. “Let some young people
come in here and take over.”
Rogers, a Nashville native, didn’t initially plan to work as a records keeper when she came to
Southern back in the ’70s. At the time, she was an art major with a minor in journalism.
“I thought I would graduate and work for a newspaper or something,” she said. “Well, I don’t
know what I was thinking, and [records] hired me before I graduated, so I didn’t have to look for a job”.
Over the years, Rogers said, she developed a strong appreciation for the position.
“I just love it because you want to see students succeed; you want them to graduate,” she
explained. “I’ve helped a lot of seniors graduate, about 14,000 since I started working here.”
She likened working with student records to doing a puzzle.
“Reading a degree audit, you have to understand all the different things that go into it,” she said.
“It’s very interesting, but it’s detailed work, and I feel responsible, because I’m the one who’s
checking to make sure [seniors] are ready to graduate.”
Karon Powell, the university’s director of Records and Advisement, said Rogers played a vital
role in tracking curriculum changes to determine how students would be affected.
“If requirements are taken away or added, she is the person who thinks on her feet and says,
‘This is the way that we can accommodate and make sure that the student is successful,’”
Powell said.
Roger’s departure will have a profound impact on the department, Powell further stated,
emphasizing the wealth of institutional knowledge Rogers has accumulated over the years.
“Working with [Rogers] has been one of the best experiences of my career,” Powell said. “She
has a way of encouraging without making you feel small. She is super understanding, pointing
you to resources or training you to do functions that she just does magically.”
Allison Maitland, a former student worker under Rogers’ supervision, said Rogers has made an
impact on students as well as coworkers.
“When I think of [Rogers], the words that immediately come to mind are patient, kind and
supportive,” she said. “I had the privilege of working as her student worker for over a year, and
she was the kind of boss who made you feel heard, valued and encouraged. But what I treasure
even more is that when our relationship changed from boss and employee to colleagues, those
qualities never changed. She has continued to be someone whose kindness, patience and
support I genuinely appreciate.”
Not all of Rogers’ time has been spent in the office, however. Rogers has a variety of hobbies,
such as doing puzzles with her friends, going on cruises and reading. She said her love for
cruises led her to decorate her office in a tropical theme.
“I guess you could call me the cruise queen, because I have done 18 cruises on about five
different cruise lines,” Rogers said.
For her next cruise, she hopes to go to the Panama Canal.
“I just love tropics and the colors and the music,” she said. “It just makes me happy, so I
surround myself with things that are colorful.”
In retirement, Rogers plans to spend more time enjoying hobbies and spending time with
friends.
