As an NSU student, you may have received emails with unconventional titles such as “Today’s short story brought to you by Aaron… Don’t stress it’s not that bad,” “BRUNCH FOR DAYS!!!” and “ARE YOU COMFORTABLE NAKED?”
Don’t worry — it’s all strategic.
Aaron Lechner, graduate assistant for special events and projects, student of college student affairs, pun-lover and introvert, has a process for drafting emails about the events his office sponsors. He asks himself, “What can I do that’s going to make people want to be involved in this?”
For Lechner, the answer is to put part of himself into everything that he does — a philosophy that has shaped how he lives life.
“There are things that I’m passionate about, things that I love being a part of. But to get that across…I have to find a way to connect,” he said.
While earning his undergraduate degree at Central Michigan University, Lechner planned to go into sports broadcasting, but his RA job changed the course of his career. He felt more happiness and joy as an RA but didn’t realize that he could make a career out of serving students until a conversation with his hall director.
“I realized that was what I wanted to do — not necessarily just be a hall director, but work at a university to eventually work with at-risk students,” he explained.
Lechner said that everyone deserves a shot at success.
“I’m not saying that life’s always going to be fair for people, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help make life easier for others and give them a chance,” he said. “I want people to be successful and that doesn’t mean that college is necessarily going to be that for everyone, but I truly believe that everyone deserves a chance.”
The desire to mentor students stems from Lechner’s experiences with his own mentors. He spoke about his high school athletic director, who gave him a job filming the school’s games after he was cut from the JV basketball team.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said.
Lechner explained that through his mentor’s rising career, as well as her two bouts with cancer, she showed him what it is to have dedication, to have spirit and to have personality in what you do.
“Those are things that have echoed in me, every day of my life,” he said. “I believe that if you’re not having fun at your job, you need to find a way to have fun or change something up real fast. You need to put a little bit of yourself in everything that you do, because if you don’t, where’s the buy-in going to be?”
Lechner joked that because of his emails, he gets made fun of in his office quite regularly. After he writes an email, he reads it to his coworkers.
“They’ll listen to it and just go, ‘Why? Why is that a thing?’ and I’m like, ‘It’s going to be a thing, people are going to like it…’ It goes back to what I said: Put a little of yourself into everything you do.”
Lechner said that his office tries to be as strategic as they can with what they send out because he understands that students are constantly being blasted with emails.
At least some students are checking their inboxes regularly because Lechner’s emails don’t go unanswered. He regularly receives replies, both positive and negative, and he’s heard that people have been talking about the emails on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. He’s even been asked to help others create subject lines.
“You’ve got to have personality,” he said. “People aren’t going to be there without that. And the fact that my emails seem to be a thing…I wouldn’t be successful at my job if you didn’t know who I was.”
He said he wants students to know that their ideas and opinions matter.
“We want to make what is enjoyable to you become real,” he explained. “The emails are a good way to reach you, as opposed to me literally knocking on every single one of your doors, and it gives me the chance to be myself, to show that I’m not afraid to make some jokes so that you guys are comfortable going somewhere.”
Although Lechner said some people might think his entire job is to send obnoxious emails, his passion is engaging students. To that end, Lechner said he’s intentional about everything he does.
“Just because they always see that humor, that doesn’t mean there isn’t purpose behind it,” he said. “I don’t take everything as a joke. There is purpose behind everything that I do.”
Lechner graduates in May, and wants to continue engaging with and encouraging students after he leaves NSU.
“I’ll put my passion, my humility, my excitement wherever I go,” he said. “As tired as I get sometimes, I think about the next email I’m going to send out, or how I’m going to do it. People look at it and go, ‘Come on. Where did you get this from?’ And I go, ‘I don’t know, but it was there.’”
Photo credit: D. Pucillo
