When students walk into Guilford’s dining hall in Founders Hall, many of them are greeted by name – sometimes before they’ve even grabbed a plate.

Elisha Wooten thinks it’s important. Not just to know who she’s serving, but how their day and classes are going. “That’s not part of my job description,” she says. “That’s just part of who I am.”

Elisha has been working in the cafeteria for just over a year and has already become another one of the campus’ quiet anchors of community. She didn’t arrive expecting that. She moved from Asheville, N.C., left behind a career in accounting, and took the job simply because she was new to Greensboro and needed work.

What she found was something better.

“I absolutely love it,” she says. “The students are amazing. I’ve worked in schools before, and by far, the students here are the most well-mannered, polite, and friendly that I’ve ever come across.”

Elisha started on the salad bar, where she works most mornings before moving to the cashier’s station during her double shifts. “Busy” is how she describes the job, but she means it in the best possible way. She likes the pace, likes knowing exactly what needs to get done and doing it. She’s proud of keeping the salad bar looking clean and appetizing – “the way I would want my food to look.”

Students notice, and they tell her so. That simple back-and-forth doesn’t just make the job more enjoyable. It’s how she’s come to know so many by their first names.

That matters, she says, especially to the students still finding their footing at Guilford.

“For freshmen who might be shy or nervous, someone mentioning their name goes a long way,” she says. “I’ve watched students come out of their shell and that means so much to me.”

Some call her “Auntie.” Some don’t know her name at all but greet her like they do. A couple who often comes through the line even asked for her contact information so they can invite her to their wedding a few years down the road.

Being new to the area, those gestures mean more than students realize. “They’ve kind of become my kids,” she says.

Elisha also credits her coworkers. While the dining operation is technically run by Meriwether Godsey, an outside organization – not by the College – she doesn’t feel like an outsider. “There’s no feeling of separation,” she says. “It feels like we're as much a part of the Guilford family, too.”

If you ask her for a food recommendation, she has one ready: the sesame linguine from the vegan station, served hot or cold. “So, so good,” she says.

What stands out most about Elisha isn’t any single story, though. It’s the way she treats each small interaction as something that matters. Students change over time. They get bolder, more talkative, more themselves. She has a front-row seat to growth.

And she isn’t planning to go anywhere.

“I’m really happy to be here,” she says. “I want to stay.”

At a college that takes pride in close connections and a sense of belonging, Elisha fits right in. She may work behind a counter, but the effect she has reaches well beyond it – in names remembered, quiet encouragement offered, and the plain, everyday kindness that makes a college feel like community.

“We’re all here together at Guilford, we’re all showing up every day,” she says. “The more we know each other the better those days will be.”