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When Sue Botts graduated from the Business Management/Administration program at the East Campus in May, 2000, she could not imagine that her dream job was only 4 months away, and that it would put her, not just behind a desk, but communing with nature as well. Sue is the accounting tech/administrative assistant at Natural Falls State Park, a 124-acre getaway located east of Kansas, Oklahoma. It is obvious listening to her speak that she loves what she does, and considers the state park her little piece of paradise.

Sue, a single mother of four, is in charge of reservations for the on-site reunion hall meeting place, arranging classes for the campers in such things as traditional bow making and Dutch oven cooking, taking reservations for use of the park, and everything office-related, such as park revenue, payroll, hiring, budgeting, accounts payable, and all the insurance packets. “If it’s done in an office, I do it,” she says. Park manager Les Pulliam and she supervise the five full-time employees as well as the additional six who work the busy season. Les does most of the purchasing and helps out in the office. “Sue is a benefit to have here in the park,” he says. “She’s a very good employee and she helps us out a lot. Indeed, the state park is bustling with activity most of the year. Sue keeps track of the 45 RV sites and the 40 tent camping sites. Running hot water in the large bath house is a major attraction to those who still like to have some of the comforts of home while roughing it outside.

Times do get busy, but Sue finds time to plant flowers in the park garden, put staghorn ferns over the man-made koi pond, and take advantage of the 1 1/2 miles of walking trails. Her favorite activity, one she uses for a respite in a hectic day and for exercise, is walking to the base of the 77-foot waterfall where the view and the sound of the crashing water can soothe even the most frazzled nerves. So how did she come into this ideal job? “Actually, it found me,” she says. “I was working part-time at Northeast Tech when a camp post (an RVer who lives at the park full-time and watches the park when the staff is off duty) called the campus and said the park had a job opening. Our night supervisor told me about it and I applied. I got the job.” Sue attributes her success to the training she received at NTC under the guidance of instructor Linda Phelps. “The training was great! It’s all been beneficial and I still use it now. I use Excel programs all the time, I use Word documents all the time, and I create documents,” she says. “I had all the basic skills I needed from NTC. I went for additional training in Oklahoma City to learn how to use the particular forms and reports we use here. My basic training helped me so that I wasn’t going in blind. I understood the concepts. Plus, a lot of stuff was done on-line, which was different. When I first came here nothing was done on line...I did it all with hard copies and mail.” Sue attended the tech center as an adult, going a half-day for two years. She was active in the Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) student organization and was a state reporter and state president. She feels that being in those leadership roles helped her develop people skills. 

“The thing I like the best about my job is the people I work with. We have a great crew here and we’re pretty close. We have fun greeting people and telling them about the park,” she says. As with all ideal jobs, this one offers many benefits, including an opportunity for personal growth and development.  Sue already teaches classes in traditional basketweaving and corn husk doll making at the reunion hall, and would like to take classes in biology and nature so that she can lead tours through the woods and park area to help children and adults identify the species of plant, tree and animal life found there. She already knows some of the denizens of the park including a family of gray foxes, a pair of ground hogs, deer, snakes, and a black squirrel who lives down in the tent area. “He’s gorgeous,” she says proudly. Besides hiking, being with nature or catch-and-release fishing in the lake, campers and visitors have one other activity they may enjoy: listening to stories about buried treasure. “Legend has it that during the Civil War, Confederate soldiers were camped here and they had wagons of ammunition and gold and payroll, and the union soldiers were coming so they backed the wagons into a cave here and blew it up. So, it’s supposed to still be here on the grounds somewhere, but nobody knows where it is. We have lots of people come looking, though,” she says with a grin. 

Northeast Technology Center is proud to name Sue Botts a Northeast Tech Champion.