Our REAL People of the College of Business series continues with faculty services office manager Noelle Cummings. Noelle has lived in the mid-Willamette Valley for most of her life but has also spent six years overseas: three in Italy, where the food was a fantastic highlight, and three in Japan, where she kept her eating relatively low-key and left things like baby squid on a stick to her more adventurous husband, Jeff.
Noelle and Jeff have two children, Sean, 12, and Emma, 8; Emma was born in Italy. Here’s more about Noelle, in her own words:
“I was born in California, moved to Oregon when I was 2 and have called Oregon home ever since. I graduated from Philomath High School in 2002, got married and had my first child in 2003, and after that I started working part-time and going to school part-time. In 2005 – my husband had joined the military – we moved to Italy in October and were there until October 2008, at Aviano Air Base. I loved it; it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Then we moved to Japan for three years, Misawa Air Base. Those six years that we spent overseas, we made some of best memories, traveling and learning. We did extensive traveling while we were in Italy, and in Japan we made it down to Tokyo a couple of times; my husband had a more rigorous work schedule, and I was working for the Air Force; I was the 35th Force Support Squadron writer and editor.
“My husband left the Air Force in 2011, and now he’s a full-time student going to school on the GI Bill; he’s an electrical engineering and computer science major, and he’ll graduate in June 2017. I graduated last June with a degree in communication, and it’s four years this month for me working at the College of Business.
“After graduating, I wanted to become more involved with my local community and I knew I wanted to do that through volunteering. I saw a call for volunteers in the Gazette-Times for American Red Cross disaster shelter workers for Benton County and thought this would be a great fit for me having experienced the Japanese 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. I completed numerous online trainings as well as a day-long hands-on orientation and training that certifies me as a Disaster Shelter Worker for Benton County. I can be called to other counties in the state as well, and with additional training, nationwide.”
