Stephanie Rubesh, a 2011 graduate of SPU, recently joined the library staff as our new Access Services Technician and student worker supervisor. Stephanie worked for the library as a student and later served a temporary position in the Circulation department. She obtained her B.A. in Creative Writing and Theater.

What are some things you are responsible for in your new position?

As the new Access Services Technician, I have some pretty legendary shoes to fill…however, I am doing my best to carry on the torch. I’m responsible for helping keep the library website up-to-date and edited, and also am in charge of book displays and the new book shelf, amongst other things.

Can you share a little bit about your experiences growing up abroad?

I grew up in the jungle – kind of. I spent all of my growing up years in Sri Lanka…the tiny island at the tip of India. My town is called Kandy and besides being the cultural capital of Sri Lanka, and home to 125 thousand people, we have a great number of monkeys and elephants that live there also. I went to a Sri Lankan school and a Sri Lankan church, and therefore “speak funny” and have an unbridled passion for spicy food. My mother is from the south of Germany, and my father is an American who hails from the Northwest, so I do enjoy coming from a cultural soup pot of a family! I would love to go back and teach English in Sri Lanka or anywhere in South East Asia sometime in the upcoming future.

Any new book recommendations?

I’m a big fiction fan – most recently I’ve been enjoying books by Isabelle Allende (Island Beneath the Sea, for instance) and rereading Tolkien (The Hobbit is my all-time favorite book). I also enjoy poetry, creative non-fiction and anything written by P.G. Wodehouse (start with The World of Jeeves for a hilarious introduction to the genius of Wodehouse).

Welcome aboard, Stephanie! We’re thrilled to have you here at the SPU Library.