“In the SAO, there isn’t really an average day,” Amelia Alpert, secretary in the Student Activities Office (SAO), said. “[…] The day is pretty much wide open.”

Alpert’s life in the SAO is never dull. The only sure parts of her day are a break for lunch and working the switchboard at 9 a.m. and at 2 p.m. The switchboard controls where calls go at South.

Another constant in the SAO is a yearly cycle of work: club registration and paperwork in the fall, Homecoming banner painting and float judging, organizing the Canned Food Drive, Variety Show, Graduation, and theHonors and Awards Assembly in the spring. The Honors and Awards Assembly is Alpert’s favorite job.

“[The assembly is] just so much fun to put together,” Alpert said. “[…]I put together the scholarship packets […] and then I have to get all of the lists to all of the people who call the kids’ parents and let them know that they’re going to get awards. That’s the most fun part.”

Alpert also writes the daily bulletin, takes care of the summer reading program, sells theater tickets, schedules student trips, answers student questions and helps kids on Student Council.

“I can attest […] to her willingness to help and her always positive attitude when doing so,” Merrick Topping, student body president, said. “She’s great!”

In February, Alpert is the House Manager of the Variety Show. She keeps people from using flash photography or interrupting performances. She loves being able to see the Variety Show all five times.

“Every time I see [the Variety Show] there’s something I missed the night before, so I’m really glad I get to see it all nights,” Alpert said.

Alpert has been working in the SAO since the spring of 2004. She was hired as a secretary to James Shellard, assistant principal of student activities, after working with him when he was the lead role in Cyrano de Bergerac at Oakton Community College. Shellard speaks very highly her.

“She always goes out of her way to help students and get problems fixed,” Shellard said.

Outside of the SAO, one of Alpert’s main passions is theater. She majored in theater at National Lewis University, and has been involved in the world of drama ever since. Alpert currently helps at North Shore Center working backstage. Her last performance onstage was in Jeffery Hatcher’s “Smash.”

“I played Miss Wilson, a wonderfully crabby old woman in a wheelchair[…] I got to wander around the stage in this amazing vintage wicker wheelchair,” she said. “It was a blast!”

When she’s not at South or the North Shore Center, Alpert likes reading mystery novels, taking walks, going to garage sales and playing with her one-year-old, Evan. She is also known for her great sense of humor and computer skills, according to Lorraine Kroll, Alpert’s co-part in the SAO.

“When she laughs, that laugh comes from the bottom of her shoes!” Kroll said. “[…] She is a great co-worker and I am very happy she came to work at Glenbrook South.”