Melanie Caughey
Melanie Caughey, accounts receivable collections associate in the Shared Services Center, shared this reflection:
From a young age, I held the University of Michigan in my mind as the best place to work. Ever.
My parents lived in the upper rooms of a house at the corner of Glen and Ann. They would go to the Diag to sit in the grass and study while my brother and I, both toddlers, ran around and chased the squirrels. I was reminded of this by a 2011 video published in Michigan Today which included a vintage photograph of two children playing on the Diag.
After completing temp work in many departments through the years, I became a permanent employee in September 2006.
I used to ride the university bus system. I took a lot of bus rides. In 2008, the unit I was in had a holiday gingerbread contest, so I tried my hand at making a gingerbread blue bus. My daughter and I used to make tiny gingerbread houses for gifts to relatives, but this was a larger endeavor. It was as long as my cookie sheet. It was around the time when the Magic Bus real-time bus arrival data system was new, so I called my creation (pictured above) the Magic Bus.
It came out looking slightly pathetic, but it was fun to make.
A Tree Grows on the Diag, by James Today, from Michigan Today.
Professor White's Diag, by James Tobin, University of Michigan Heritage Project.