Growing up in a military family, P J Woolston, Ed.D., vice president of enrollment management, lived in multiple places across the United States—Utah, California, Minnesota, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan, and Ohio to be exact! Most recently, Woolston moved from Los Angeles, California to Indiana to join Marian University.
Woolston’s favorite part of working at Marian University is the extraordinary people and the friendships he has been able to develop so quickly. He has also enjoyed collaborating with other faculty and staff members to make exciting projects happen.
One of Woolston’s current projects involves connecting prospective students with faculty members who are passionate about their discipline and areas of expertise. Instead of a student basing a college decision strictly on transactional factors, such as how much financial aid they will receive, Woolston’s goal is to help students make the decision based on their relationships with professors who truly care.
Q & A with P J Woolston
Q: What has been one of your most memorable experiences at Marian University?
A: I’ve only been through one commencement so far, but that was very special. It’s amazing to get all these different groups of people in one place to celebrate this moment: students and their families, faculty and staff, alumni and trustees. For so many schools, especially larger schools, the community is really the academic discipline, but at Marian University, the entire university truly is the community. It really speaks to what I was looking for when we moved here.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
A: If I could travel anywhere, I think I would have to go to central Europe because I could easily and quickly visit several different countries and cultures within a short time span.
Q: If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?
A: So many choices! In the past I’ve always been torn between the ability to fly and the ability to be invisible, but lately I think I would take the ability to manipulate time. There are just so many uses! You could suspend time when you really need a nap, speed up time when things are boring or uncomfortable, or even toggle back and forth during sports—I’d be unbeatable!
