Customer Service Representative Andrea Thompson is an energetic woman with a warm smile and big heart, who helped raise and financially support three younger siblings and who now helps take care of her grandmother, a foster child, and hundreds of customers from North Carolina to Hawaii. Only 32 years old, Andrea has shouldered many responsibilities in her life and continues to do so both personally and professionally.

Andrea came to Campus Partners four years ago after leaving her job as a quality control worker and trainer for a sock company in Mt. Airy, a small community bordering the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. At the urging of her cousin who then worked for Campus Partners, Andrea came to work here as a Borrower Services Representative. At first she had her doubts about working in an automated Call Center environment, but she quickly caught on as a result of the training and support she received here.

She was promoted to Customer Service Representative a year ago, and today the formerly technology-shy employee serves as a communication hub, fielding 20 to 30 e-mails and 30 to 40 phone calls each day from customers. Responding to these requests requires her to process forbearances and deferments, adjust accounts, help schools resolve borrower problems, assist them with on-line processing questions, research and provide follow-up about account questions, and provide information about federal loan regulations.

Andrea is something of a rarity in today’s world. Simply put, she "loves her job." She enjoys what she does and the relationships she has with her co-workers and customers. She also likes being able to help her customers resolve problems. "I always want to be knowledgeable and confident so when customers ask questions, they don’t have to ask them again. The whole point of customer service is knowledge. You can call some places and talk to three different people and get three different answers. I don’t like that. I like consistency."

She enjoys meeting people over the phone and now counts customers from throughout the country, such as those at Cal State schools, as her friends. She was thrilled when she had the opportunity to accompany a School Relations Coordinator on a visit to a college in North Carolina. She met one of her customers face-to- face, which gave her tremendous insight into her customer’s needs. To see one person handling thousands of loans helped her realize how important her role is in supporting people working at the schools. "Now I really understand why it is important to respond to even the simplest request from a customer," says Andrea.

Because of her faith, Andrea believes that she will not be given a burden that she cannot handle. This philosophy helps her maintain her composure both at work and in her personal life. Her parents divorced when she was attending a community college in Mt. Airy. Putting her plans aside, she dropped out of school and got a job in a textile mill to help her mother raise her two younger sisters and brother and get them through school. Six years ago she agreed to raise her two-year-old cousin, Niya. Shortly after that time, she and Niya moved in with her grandmother, which has enabled her grandmother to maintain her household.

Off the job, family activities with her sisters and nieces and nephews abound. She also finds time to camp on a friend’s farm, sing at weddings, and go horseback riding. In fact, Niya wants the two of them to move to Texas and become cowgirls.

Even though Andrea’s dreams are not quite as fanciful, they do embody a pioneering spirit. Although currently unattached, Andrea wants to get married, move into a log cabin on a 10-acre farm, and raise a family. Given her ties to family, co-workers, and customers, that log cabin would have to be linked to the outside world via a fast DSL line to keep Andrea connected to those who mean the most to her.