APT Member Highlight: Benjamin Frietag

November 25, 2019

Name: Ben­jamin Freitag

Posi­tion: Man­ag­er of Spe­cial Projects

URFA APT Mem­ber Since: April 2009

Pro­vide a descrip­tion of your posi­tion, and what a ​“day in the life” at your job might look like: My main job is to pro­vide sup­ports for grad­u­ate stu­dents. I try to coor­di­nate dif­fer­ent ser­vices on cam­pus and let stu­dents know what oppor­tu­ni­ties are avail­able to them. My day in the life does not fol­low a rou­tine. I always have a num­ber of spe­cial projects on the go (pro­gram review/​development, web design, data analy­sis, event plan­ning, etc) so I am man­ag­ing the dif­fer­ent pri­or­i­ties as they come in.

What about your posi­tion is the most reward­ing? I get to try to make stu­dents’ lives better.

What is the most chal­leng­ing? I always have a num­ber of projects on the go, so it is hard to give the small­er projects my full attention.

What’s your favorite part of work­ing at the U of R?

I have been for­tu­nate to work in envi­ron­ments where a thought­ful approach is appre­ci­at­ed. I like being able to inves­ti­gate top­ics and try to do what is best, even if that isn’t what is easiest.

What’s some­thing inter­est­ing about your job that most peo­ple might not know about? The U of R has a high reten­tion rate for grad­u­ate students.

This APT Mem­ber high­light orig­i­nal­ly appeared in the June 2019 issue of URFA Update.