Yvette Stone sits in her office in Cater Hall with windows that look out over The Quad and the tours that leave the Quad Center. Students pass back and forth, and Stone reminisces about the years she was once in their shoes.
Stone graduated from Auburn in 2009 with an undergraduate degree in history.
Unlike many Auburn students, Stone did not apply to Auburn with the lifelong dream of being a Tiger.
She initially did not want to attend a large school, but as she put it, “Somehow, Auburn pulls you in.”
When Stone finished her undergraduate degree, her professors and advisers encouraged her to apply for a master’s degree. While she applied to a lot of schools, ultimately, Auburn was the final choice.
While pursuing her master’s, Stone was an academic tutor in the athletic department and found she had a passion for working with students.
Following the completion of her master’s, Stone decided to pursue a career as an academic adviser.
With an offer on the table at South Alabama, Stone and her husband decided to move to the coast.
“It was very different for me to go and work for another university, particular another university that was not part of the SEC,” Stone said. “And so, how much different the student body was, their perspective about things and, you know, that Auburn Family, like it becomes very apparent when you’re on a different campus.”
After three-and-a-half years, in September 2018, Stone moved back to Auburn with her husband to be an academic adviser in the Honors College at the University she once attended.
“The campus itself has changed dramatically,” Stone said. “I like to laugh because the Haley Center was my kind of zone for Liberal Arts, and that’s still the same. But the rest of the campus is crazy, and I think just the growth of the University and then the campus as a whole and all of the construction that’s always going on, you can see, and it’s much more evident now that I’m coming back, like how much bigger Auburn is getting.”
Working as an academic adviser gives Stone the opportunity to share what she learned as a student at Auburn.
“I majored in something that I really loved to do, had no idea what I was going to do with that, but you figure that out as it goes,” Stone said. “And so working with students to go through that same process is really fun for me.”
Part of her job, however, is knowing when not to intervene.
Students have to make their own choices, and Stone said she is a sounding board and resource for students.
“It can be frustrating because, especially coming from being an Auburn student myself, it’s like I want to give you all this knowledge that I had, but I got to step back a little bit,” Stone said.
Stone said working for Auburn gives her pride because it was the school she attended.
Because of this rare position, Stone can really relate to the students.
Recently, Stone spoke to a history major who was taking one of the same professors that she had just a few years ago.
Having graduated in 2009 and earned her master’s shortly thereafter, Stone’s love for The Loveliest Village on the Plains has not waned.
“The parts about Auburn that I really, really loved when I was a student, it’s still the same,” Stone said. “So kind of the large-SEC-school feel with the small town kind of, that’s the fun part. And that’s ultimately why I chose Auburn because it is big, and you get all the fun stuff that comes with attending a large SEC school and all the cool stuff that comes with that, but you don’t feel overwhelmed by it.”
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