A ‘people person’

For many visitors to campus over the past 32 years, Carolina’s front door opened to Susan Sabiston.

Her role as the first person to greet visitors began in the Office of the Chancellor, where she handled reception duties as an office assistant from 1993 to 2000. The self-professed “people person” enjoyed the office camaraderie and visitors, from the late Robin Williams and former UNC President Bill Friday, to the many faculty, staff and students she helped.

She then joined Scholarships and Student Aid as an executive assistant just as the office was launching the Carolina Covenant, the University’s groundbreaking program created in 2004 that enables low-income students to graduate debt-free.

A single mother, Sabiston knows what financial aid can mean to a family. “Any type of funding that a parent or student can receive is a benefit,” she said. Sabiston went through the financial aid process for her daughter, a 2018 East Carolina University graduate. Her daughter received a UNC Family Scholarship, awarded to Carolina employee dependents who attend a UNC System school.

Sabiston has also seen huge improvements in financial aid as processes involving long lines and lots of paper moved online. But her human touch and ability to connect with visitors remain an entry point to Carolina’s commitment to an accessible education. Sometimes, people from a student’s hometown visit to advocate for the student to receive aid. They feel comfortable and often treat their time with Sabiston as a rehearsal for talking with an administrator.

“It’s always nice to see somebody other than a parent, somebody in the community who feels strongly enough for a student to call or come and ask if there’s any way that we could help them,” Sabiston said.