Like the military, Missouri Southern enjoys getting new recruits.

To help recruit new students, Southern has a new recruiter, Sarah Cunningham.

Cunningham, who graduated in May 2003 with a degree in communications, said she enjoys her job.

“I love it,” Cunningham said. “It’s great.”

She said the one part of her job she enjoys the most is talking to prospective students about Southern.

“I loved my time at Southern,” she said. “I’m able to tell them (the prospects) about it. I always tell [the students] about my time here.”

Other aspects of her job she enjoys is the chance to travel and meet with high school students who are trying to figure out where to go for college.

She said the students are “excited and inquisitive” about the University. One of the questions she gets asked a lot is if there is anything to do on campus. Cunningham tells the students “there are always fun things happening.”

Cunningham recruits students from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas, as well as some schools within Missouri.

She said she always wanted to get a job on a college campus.

“I’ve always been interested in recruiting, and I wanted to work on a college campus,” Cunningham said. “I found out about it (the job) through networking. I checked the Internet once a month for jobs on different campuses.”

Derek Skaggs, director of enrollment services, said he is glad Cunningham is a recruiter because she is able to relate to how incoming freshmen feel because of her time at Southern.

“[Cunningham] worked in the student support center, also with Freshman Orientation,” Skaggs said. “She knows a lot about the school. With her work experience here, she is familiar with issues incoming first-time freshmen encounter.”

Skaggs said there are three skills Cunningham possesses that make her a good recruiter: strong communication skills, she was active in Fresh Start and her love of the University.

“These three skills make her a standout for a recruiter of admissions,” Skaggs said. “She bleeds green and gold; we’re glad to have her here.”

Cunningham said she is not for sure if this is where she will spend her whole career, but she’ll “be here for a while.”