Shivani Kackar
Admissions Counselor
Undergraduate Admissions
JOB DESCRIPTION: “As an admissions counselor, I serve as a recruiter for the university. I travel to different areas of the country, mainly Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., recruiting first-year students and helping them, and transfer students, through the application process. I also serve as an adviser to the Georgia Recruitment Team, an organization run by student volunteers.”
YEARS IN CURRENT POSITION: One and a half.
TYPICAL DAY: “I think one of the good things about my job is that no day is the same as the previous day. Typically, I will spend a good part of my day speaking with students and parents, or following up with students I’ve met on the road. I also help out with the different publications in our office.”
MOST REWARDING PART OF MY JOB: “Feeling as though you’ve influenced a young person in his or her decision-making process and being able to open students’ minds to the possibilities that UGA has to offer is really rewarding. Especially when you get students who call or e-mail you and tell you that they’re really excited they were admitted.”
PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCES: “When I was in college [at the University of Virginia], I served as the student chair of a 20-person board of directors for a non-profit organization called Madison House. It is the largest campus-based community service organization in the country, with about 3,000 community and student volunteers.
“I also taught math for high school, some gifted and some remedial education.”
IF I WASN’T DOING THIS JOB, I WOULD MOST LIKE TO: “I really enjoy traveling, so in an ideal world I would have a yacht and could sail around the world. I studied abroad [in Valencia, Spain] in college and traveled a lot then. Learning about people from other cultures and backgrounds has always been really exciting for me.”
OFF-THE-JOB INTERESTS: “Right now I’m involved with the Team in Training, which is the fund-raising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a non-profit organization that provides patient services and research for blood-related cancers. Around Thanksgiving, two other people from Admissions, Sarah Helwick and Rebecca Buffington, began training with me for the Adidas International [Half] Marathon in Vancouver in May. We committed to raising $3,700 each by the marathon, and I’ve raised about $1,600 so far through donations from family and friends.
“We are training in honor of Bruce Morgan, our local patient-hero, who is battling chronic leukemia. Amazingly, he’s training for the Country Music Marathon in Nashville in April. He’s truly an inspiration, and keeps us going when we have to get up early in the morning.
“I got involved with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society because my boyfriend’s mother is a survivor of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and I’ve seen the lasting effects of how this disease can change a family’s life. This is one cause that’s hit close to home for me, so I thought it was a good reason to get up and do something.
“To help raise awareness for the Society and these diseases, and to raise the $3,700 each we committed to raising, we’re having our first fund-raising event downtown at Wild Wing Cafe, March 20 from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. “
THE ISSUE THAT CONCERNS ME MOST ABOUT TODAY’S WORLD: “That there aren’t more people out there doing good works because they think success is related more to their wealth rather than to the people they help and the impact they can make in a community.
“I think there is a need for people who question why things are the way they are to find out what we can do not only to fix the problem, but also to get to the root of the problem so that it doesn’t continue.”
