Excluding a brief one-year hiatus, Janie Adams Boles has spent the past 24 years in Auburn. From being a student to serving in Auburn Athletics, she has loved the Auburn Family throughout.
And recently, Boles developed her relationship with the University even further when the third-generation graduate was named executive assistant to University President Steven Leath at the end of 2018.
“I’m really loving the job,” she said. “It was really just God’s timing I think to move me into a new area on campus. I really like getting to know more of this side of Auburn University as well as still staying connected in some capacity with donors and athletics. I feel like every job I’ve had up until now helped me be prepared for this role.”
Boles said she likes how her new position frees up her weekends and nights, whereas when she worked at Tigers Unlimited for the previous 18 years, she had a much different work schedule.
“I feel like I have some great skills that I can add to the team, and we can all work together to do what’s best for Auburn,” Boles said. “Anywhere I’ve been, I’ve just loved working as a team, and I feel like no one person has all the skills. We all have our different gifts and work together to make it happen when we are working toward our goal.”
She said her new position is extremely fast-paced, which is just the way she likes it.
Boles, originally from Marietta, Georgia, has a deep history on Auburn’s campus.
She attended the University from 1995 to 1999 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health promotion and sports management.
“A long line of my family went to Auburn, so growing up I’ve always been an Auburn fan,” she said. “I never applied for anywhere else because I just loved Auburn.”
Boles was an Auburn Tiger Paws dancer in 1996 and had the special opportunity to perform with her fellow Tiger Paws at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
“It was a lot of fun,” she recounted. “I really enjoyed performing growing up and decided to join the Tiger Paws. It was neat to engage with alumni and fans as well as perform at football and basketball games.”
She also worked for the Auburn Athletics Ticket Office as a student from 1996 to 1998.
She said she believes that this job helped open her eyes to other areas in athletics she could work in. She also said serving people in this position strengthened her love for Auburn.
A year later, she became a student athletic trainer for Auburn Athletics. Boles worked with football, swimming and diving.
“It was really amazing,” Boles said. “I’ve always been a fan of football but never really knew what took place on the field. It was really neat to see. You focus so much on the athletes and the coaches, but there are so many other support staff that are doing things behind the scenes to make it work.”
She added that she didn’t continue in this field because of the required hours. Boles knew she wanted a family in her future, and the job required arriving early and going home late at night.
During her final year as a student, Boles was an intern for Auburn executive suites.
“That’s when I learned about the hospitality side of athletics, and just in general, I feel like everyone should strive to see what their strengths are, and one of mine is serving others,” Boles said. “I really enjoy serving others, and I think that was a really good fit for that strength. So once I found that internship my senior year, I knew that (was) what I hoped to do post-college.”
After graduating and marrying her high school sweetheart, Boles moved back to Georgia.
She took on a part-time job with the Atlanta Braves as an executive suites coordinator.
In the same year, she took on a job at the Georgia Dome as an executive services coordinator.
“It was definitely, in my opinion, a job for someone who is either newly married or single,” she said. “I got to learn everything about monster trucks to concerts. I was also there for the Super Bowl in 2000, where there was a big ice storm. Some of us had to spend the night in our offices to make sure that we were there for our job the next day.”
Boles fondly stated that she has a lot of memories from working there, and she feels as if she was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work there.
But she couldn’t stay away from Auburn for too long.
In 2000, Boles and her husband came back to Auburn.
She then took on a job at the Tigers Unlimited Foundation.
She took on the job as assistant athletic director until 2018, when she became the newly appointed assistant to the president.
Whether she is on campus or off, Boles keeps the Auburn Creed close to her heart and lives by it in her everyday life. She said that two specific lines stand out to her.
Boles believes the line that states, “I believe in work, hard work” stands out the most.
“I’ve always believed in hard work and that we are not meant to have things given to us and that we need to put forth the work to make Auburn better as well as our country better,” she said.
She has also internalized the line that urges that people can best serve their country by “doing justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with my God.”
“Through the various ups and downs I have lived through, I connect deeply with the statement from the Auburn Creed above,” Boles said. “It is due to walking humbly with my God that has enabled me to be where I am blessed to be now in life.”
Boles feels as though her many years of serving the Auburn Family have been a dream come true, and she is looking forward to the many memories that will be made in her future.
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