Tiana Hakimzadeh. Graphic by Jaylene Arnold.

I’ve worked at AU for 10 years. Before that, I worked in admissions at the University of Maryland.

My job is to oversee the campus visit experience for Undergraduate Admissions, including the Welcome Center—which draws 30,000 visitors each year—and the 40 undergraduate students in the AU Ambassadors program. My office is on the second floor of the Katzen Arts Center.

A typical day includes restocking admissions brochures and drawstring bags, mixing and mingling with families, checking people in, and introducing myself before sending visitors out across campus.  

My go-to lunch spot is Wegmans in Tenleytown. I walk the two-mile round trip from campus and back for sushi. My favorite place on campus to steal a quiet moment is my office, where I can shut my door and put on K-pop music. Campus is at its prettiest after Campus Beautification Day, which is the busiest time of the year for us.

The person who helped show me the ropes is Megan Nassau, my best friend and my first AU supervisor as a student worker and staff member. She taught me everything about running the Welcome Center. I found my community at AU by meeting people across campus through activities like AhealthyU group fitness classes. My favorite day of the workweek is Thursday—one day closer to Friday.

Mine is an Eagle family. My whole family attended AU, including my dad, Shar Hakimzadeh, Kogod/MS ’92; my sister, Roya Hakimzadeh, CAS/BS ’13; and mom, Halleh Mehdiyoun, director of information systems, who has worked at AU more than 40 years. A big reason my sister and I came to AU was for the tuition remission benefit.  

I show my AU spirit by attending AU Athletics events. I was a student manager for the men’s basketball team, and that was one of my favorite college experiences. Because of the value of that work, I now work part-time at the scorer’s table for men’s and women’s basketball games, and I’m a statistician for volleyball.

When I’m not at work, you can find me at a basketball game. Between the Washington Wizards and Mystics and AU, George Washington, Georgetown, and George Mason, I work the scorer’s table keeping time or score at over 100 basketball games each year. My other hobbies include playing strategy board games with my husband and playing Luigi’s Mansion 2 or anything else in the Mario-verse on Nintendo Switch.

My most Washington moment was meeting and taking a picture with Magic Johnson during halftime at the 2019 NCAA East Regional in DC, which I worked as official scorekeeper. The most famous face I’ve seen on campus is Angelina Jolie. I coordinated a VIP visit for her and her daughter several years ago.

The last great show I watched was Crashed Landing on You. The last great meal I ate was a chicken dish with greens over rice at the Farm Restaurant in Turks and Caicos over the summer.

If I wasn’t at AU, I’d be working in sports. But my job at AU is best because I work with students, who are a big reason why I won the staff award this year. It’s special for me to be a small chapter in their college experiences and watch them evolve and grow into amazing young adults.