Legacy student Hannah Rueter, ’23, has worked in UNC’s Advancement department since her first year on campus, but it turns out that the department played a role in her life long before then.  

When Hannah’s father, Wade Rueter, ’96, was a student at UNC, he worked in Advancement throughout his college career. At that point, the department looked significantly different. He was hired to work in the phonathon, a program where students called parents and alumni.  

His role evolved throughout his time in phonathon: going from running through a stack of index cards sorted by time zones to call UNC’s alumni and parents, to working in the back office on a computer updating records in a precursor to Microsoft Excel. 

Close with his peers at the phonathon, Wade was set up on a blind date by a coworker from Advancement. That is where he would meet Sharon Schleicher, ’96, his coworker’s dormmate from Belford Hall, and his one-day wife. Now, nearly 28 years of marriage later, their daughter Hannah is working in the same department that helped kickstart their marriage.

Originally pursuing a degree in teaching, her parents encouraged Hannah to explore UNC as an option for her own college experience. Agreeing that UNC had an impressive teaching program, known for graduating well-prepared professionals, Hannah enrolled.  

"It was an easy choice, where I asked, ‘I want to be a teacher, where do I go?’ and they told me that UNC is a great teaching school and known for their program,” said Hannah. 

Hannah discovered her passion for serving children and families in a different way, and ended up graduating with her bachelor’s degree in Audiology and Speech Language Science. She wanted to pursue a career in an outpatient medical setting with pediatrics specializing in deaf and hard of hearing patients, so after earning her bachelor’s degree, Hannah returned to UNC to earn her master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology. Now in her second year of her master’s program, her role in Advancement has changed significantly since she started, just like her dad’s did decades before. 

“Working in Advancement now, I do a lot more on the back end of things... I do almost entirely alumni updates and employment updates,” said Hannah. 

In a program where she juggles classes, being a graduate assistant, and needing to be available for her advisors and clinical clients at any time during regular business hours, Hannah was relieved to have a job that would evolve and work with her schedule. 

In her role in Advancement, Hannah processes updates that the office receives from alumni about the new jobs and careers that they are pursuing. Her work is crucial to ensuring the accuracy of the university’s Alumni Employment Dashboard.  

“For two summers [my supervisor] was telling me, ‘What you’re doing is important. I know it seems like you’re just going in and updating [information] for a bunch of random people and it might not matter, but it’s for something,’ so seeing [the dashboard] get launched when I’ve done close to 10,000 updates has been really cool,” said Hannah. 

The updates Hannah does are such important work that she was recognized as one of UNC’s Top 5 Student Employees of the Year in 2024. As her nominator notes, Hannah has been incredibly valuable.  

“The volume of work she is able to get done around her grad workload is phenomenal. Hannah helped train and onboard other student employees... her leadership [has] a quiet, patient and caring style. Hannah has done thousands of record updates, sent out hundreds of receipts and thank you cards to acknowledge donors, and spent countless hours recording thank you videos to donors. Hannah is a rock star and deserves the highest of kudos for her contributions,” said Hannah’s nominator. 

When Hannah first started working in Advancement, it was during the Covid-19 pandemic. She hadn't had an in-person class and couldn't spend time with her friends in their dorm rooms. Coming into the department as a student worker amid so much uncertainty and without having laid down roots elsewhere on campus created a special opportunity for Advancement to become her home. As she maneuvered through all that college and the state of the world threw at her, she had a place on campus to come back to where her team valued and supported her through it all. 

Where many students are navigating a career path that their parents haven’t experienced themselves, Hannah is fortunate that her own mom, Sharon Rueter, ’96, is a speech-language pathologist who graduated from UNC’s Audiology and Speech Language program. Sharon can give Hannah advice that complements what Hannah is learning from her counsellors and professors at UNC.  

All the guidance she received led Hannah to realize that it would be smart to work at a private practice or in a school setting before pursuing her goal of working in early intervention home care. Having peers to learn from and be supported by before going into a career that is mostly solitary will help her provide even better care when she does transition into teaching parents how to provide for their children at home. 

“I love parent coaching, it’s so amazing. I love working with the kids, but helping parents to communicate with their child, it’s a whole other level of family care,” said Hannah. 

Being a positive presence in family lives, allowing them to communicate better and understand one another, is what Hannah strives to accomplish throughout her career. Through her training and experience at UNC, she can give parents the tools to provide for their child and empower them every day to improve the communication and lives of their family.  

Through her thoughtful approach to her career, Hannah will improve the lives of children every day, giving them their own places to feel supported through all of life’s obstacles, just as she built for herself on UNC’s campus 3 years ago.