MILES CITY, MONTANA: When Miles Community College Vice President of Enrollment Management and Educational Support Services Erin Niedge is asked what a normal workday is like in her office, she laughs. “Don’t ask my kids!”
“They’ll tell you that my job is to go to lots of meetings and type on my computer. Not entirely accurate...”
While she does spend time at MCC in meetings and at her desk, her role encompasses much more than that. Her days are spent supporting both students and employees and working out ways to make things better for them, the campus, and the community.
“Unfortunately, that does seem to involve an inordinate amount of meetings and emails,” Erin says. “But I do get to collaborate with lots of different people!”
Erin was born and raised in the same city where the college resides: Miles City, Montana. Her first job found her delivering prescriptions for Osco Pharmacy.
“Looking back now, it is sort of wild that they would send a teenage girl out alone on delivery,” she states. “The pharmacists and store manager both knew me well and were always looking out for me.”
That experience of support in a workplace now lends to her favorite parts of working at MCC, where she has been employed for the last 18 years.
“MCC has a supportive and family-friendly environment, with great coworkers. I have been fortunate to have been offered chances to challenge myself and grow into a leadership position.”
Erin looks back fondly as she remembers one of her greatest (and favorite) achievements in her career, which happened during her time as director of the MCC Learning Center. She was able to coordinate having the Montana governor visit the MCC campus as the commencement speaker during the high school equivalency program graduation ceremony.
“Having our highest-ranking state elected official come and spend time with a dozen GED completers and tell them that they and the hard work they’ve done really did matter, and that they were an important part of our state’s future, was so wonderful!”
Outside of work, Erin likes to spend time with her husband and children, read, cook, and bake. She has a goal of visiting all 50 states and making her family stop at every tourist trap and roadside attraction along the way.
Her favorite piece of advice is something she shares with students along with other employees, and covers all facets of life, both work and personal: “Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important.”
