Laurie LaRose | Assistant Director/Orientation Coordinator
If you visit Laurie LaRose’s office, don’t be fooled by the colorful spirit posters on her walls, the glossy group photos on her desk or the red and gray pompoms on top of her filing cabinet. You haven’t entered cheerleader territory. LaRose doesn’t chant the Colonels fight song, build pyramids or do toe touches.
But she does use her enthusiasm and creativity to increase support for Nicholls State University through high school recruitment and freshman orientations.
"Seeing students in high school who do not even know where Nicholls is then watching them become orientation leaders on campus is the most enjoyable part of my job,” LaRose says. “It’s a lot of fun, and getting to work with students every day keeps my job exciting.”
LaRose graduated from Nicholls with a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology in December 1999. While a student, she served as president of Phi Mu sorority and was active in the Student Government Association, Student Programming Association and the speech organization.
“I absolutely loved going to Nicholls,” LaRose says. “I wouldn’t change anything about my experience. If I could go back and be 18 again, I’d gladly go back and do it all over again. I don’t think I could have had the same experience if I had gone anywhere else.”
LaRose also served as a Nicholls orientation leader during her undergraduate years, which helped her get a job as a graduate assistant in admissions at Southeastern Louisiana University. LaRose worked at Southeastern for four years while working on her master’s degree in speech. She was promoted to admissions counselor and then to coordinator of recruiting before returning to Nicholls two years ago.
“It’s wonderful being home; there’s nothing like it,” LaRose says.
LaRose is currently working on a master’s degree in higher education at Nicholls. In her spare time, LaRose exercises, reads, cooks and shops.