More than the mail

When walking down to the post office in the Alfonso Elder Student Union, certain things catch your attention.

There are the long lines in the Eagle's Nest and the chatter of students going in and out of the bookstore. But there's also the friendly voice of the small lady with the golden blonde hair.

Students call her Ms.Vonnie.

Vonnie Nunnally has been been making sure students get their mail for 13 years — rain, sleet or snow.

Nunnally says life has been good her. She and eight siblings were raised on a farm in Rockingham County. It's there, she  says, that she learned to cherish life.

"I'm a little old country girl, ain't nothing city about me," said Nunnally.

"I was lucky to have both of my parents all my life, all through my life." 

She says her father instilled in her pride, plus a bit of wisdom about the  boys.

"My father used to tell me, ‘If he can't come and take you out in the daytime, he must be 'shamed of you, so he can't take you out at night.'"

Nunnally says her faith has carried her through the difficulties that life has brought her way.

While Nunnally was training as a nurses' aid at  Rockingham Community College, her 6-year-old daughter Altrena Renea died from a Wilms tumor, a cancer of the kidney that typically occurs in children.

Wilms disproportionately affects individuals of African descent.

One of Vonnie's first jobs was working in Reidsville, N.C. at White Ridge Plastics.

She then worked at Sears for 15 years in Greensboro. She then moved to Proctor and Gamble in Greensboro, where she manufactured health and well-being products for five years.

"It was a good job and it paid good money," said Vonnie.

"But I was laid off due to downsizing."

In 1997, she finally found her home as a beloved Eagle.

Vonnie says she has enjoyed everyone at NCCU and is proud to have witnessed the University's tremendous growth and development over the years.

Ask anyone on campus and they will tell you that Vonnie's attitude sets her apart from the other staff on campus.

"She gives off a motherly feeling when I talk to her," said Josh Spells, mass communication junior.

Her motherly approach to dealing with students is what makes her constructive criticism easy to handle.

Vonnie has been known to tell students wearing saggy jeans to pull up their pants. 

She often tells students to "have respect for yourself if you don't have respect for nobody else."

Instead of getting annoyed when students don't use common sense, Vonnie treats every student as if he or she is her own child.

When one student asked her,  "Do you sell stamps?" Vonnie replied with a chuckle, "That's common sense. We are a post office so of course we sell stamps."

Vonnie grins and bears with each individual because she said she knows not everyone has had the same life experience that she has had.

"Perhaps they have never truly bought stamps," she said. 

Vonnie said some of her criticism has not been taken very well.

"I've had students get mad at me in the past," said Vonnie.

"But usually the ones who finish and graduate come back to apologize."

One of Vonnie's greatest  acts of kindness occurred when she gave a helping hand to a student who had no money and no place to stay.        

Nunnally put the student up for an entire academic year.  "If I had a child and I sent her off to school," said Nunnally.

"I would want someone to take my child under their wing and steer them in the right direction."

With her help, the student finished and graduated.

Nunnally is modest about her contribution to NCCU.

She said that staff need to show a more caring approach toward students.

"I always say if it wasn't for you, the student, we wouldn't have a job."

She said out of everything she enjoys about working at NCCU, what keeps her coming back is her relationship with the students.  

"I just like helping people and meeting people because I never know who I might meet."