Walking into the main office can be intimidating or overwhelming.  It could be your first day of school, or you could have gotten a pass and you don’t know why.

But the first person who greets you as you walk into the main office at Watkins Mill High School can put you instantly at ease.

Main office secretary Jean Andersen is new to her position at Watkins Mill, although not new to the demands of the job overall.  Andersen previously worked at Damascus Elementary School as a special ed para-educator, at Clarksburg High School as the attendance secretary, at Rocky Hill Middle School as the counseling secretary, and at Captain James E. Daly Elementary School as the attendance secretary.

“I like the new position,” Andersen said.  Partially because she has a short commute from home, but mostly because she enjoys “meeting so many new students who care about their future. There is a great mix of students and staff and I enjoy meeting them.”

Andersen has experience working with teenagers because she has a 17-year-old daughter, who is a junior at Damascus High School.  Having seen the environment at so many different schools, Andersen said, “I’m so impressed by the plethora of classes that are available to you more so than other schools. There are really cool opportunities [at Watkins Mill].”

In particular, Andersen is impressed by the diversity at Watkins Mill. “I embrace change and am so happy to see alliance groups,” Andersen added. “I believe they are so important. [And because of this, the students and staff] seem very comfortable around each other.”

Andersen is well prepared to work with the diverse population at Watkins Mill because of her lifelong interest in international travel. Among her favorite places where she has travelled are Singapore, which she described as being “so sparkling clean,” as well as the United Kingdom, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Korea.

Outside of school, Andersen’s interests include keeping up with her daughter, reading, and she says she has “a weird soft spot for Downton Abbey, Law and Order, cooking, scrabble, and genealogy.”

While Andersen is new at her job here, she thinks it’s important to remember to not be too hard on herself, and if she makes a mistake she tells herself to “Keep on truckin’.”