Christin Gulick '04
"All of the students are very passionate about whatever it is that they're doing. You don't get normal hugs here; you get really impassioned hugs."
Working as a help desk supervisor in the Department of Information Technology and Systems, Christin Gulick can't help but notice the great divide between people who could write a book about computers and people who are scared to touch them.
"Too often you see people who know tons about computers but don't know how to explain how to use a mouse to someone who's never used one before," Gulick said. "Bothpeople get so frustrated."
Gulick wants to make it her work to bridge that gap by teaching at the college level. Guilford helped sharpen her longtime passion for computers -- she's been designing professional Web sites since ninth grade -- by providing her with leadership opportunities that revealed a talent for teaching. Her major is computer information systems.
Gulick, a resident of Clayton, N.C., and native of New York State, said she is going to need a whole box of tissues when she leaves Guilford. "You make such good friendships here with the students and with the faculty," she said. "People really truly care here. A school draws its environment from the people, and those little things filter down to every aspect of the school."
Gulick said she appreciates those little things, from getting a smile from everyone she passes to knowing professors care enough to call when a student is sick.
Even though she already had the nickname "Happy," as in Happy the Dwarf from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gulick said she has learned much from the level of patience rising from Guilford's Quaker roots. "People are willing to sit and contemplate something before talking about it," she said. "That is the main thing I'm going to be able to take away."