"SignUpGenius Is There for Me": A School Coordinator's Story
Posted by Ally Patterson
How One Career Academy Coordinator Keeps Students, Employers, and Events Running in Sync
Sandi Couillard's title is Youth Apprenticeship Coordinator — but the scope of the job is hard to capture in two words. She connects students with real employers. She manages a work-based learning program where she visits students on the job. She coordinates mock interviews where business professionals come into the school to give students a taste of the real thing. She runs hiring fairs, signs up new apprentices, and keeps every time slot, every stakeholder, and every event from colliding with the next one.
And she does all of it for Houston College and Career Academy in Georgia, where the second semester isn't a slower version of the first. It's more of everything.
"It's very busy in the spring," she says. "And I use SignUpGenius to help me keep all of that organized."
The Logistics Behind the Learning
The spring semester at Houston College and Career Academy is packed. Career and Technical Education Month in February brings a full slate of activities. New students enter the work-based learning program and need to be scheduled for interviews. Hiring fairs need to be coordinated. Signing days arrive. And through it all, Sandi needs to know — at any given moment — who is showing up, when, and whether she has enough coverage for each slot.
The challenge isn't any single event. It's the density of events happening at the same time, all requiring sign ups from different groups of people: students, employers, interviewers, supervisors.
"I have to have knowledge of whether or not I have enough people signed up for different time slots so that my students will have plenty of opportunities to practice their interview skills."
That kind of real-time visibility — knowing who's confirmed and where the gaps are — is exactly what Sandi needed. SignUpGenius gave it to her.
One Platform for Students, Employers, and Everything in Between
Sandi has found uses for SignUpGenius on nearly every side of her job. When she needs to visit students at their worksite, she creates a sign up so students can choose a time when both they and their supervisor will be present — no guessing, no back-and-forth. When mock interview season arrives, she uses SignUpGenius to bring in business professionals from the community, letting interviewers choose their slots so she always knows she has enough coverage for each student.
"I use it for opportunities to allow people to sign up to see me or for me to see them,"
What makes it work across such different use cases is the flexibility. She doesn't have to force every event into the same format. She can adjust the layout, the time slots, and the look of each sign up to fit what she actually needs.
"I don't have to just use the same layout for every single thing that I do. I really enjoy the different themes and backgrounds it allows me to use."
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Sandi is clear-eyed about what makes her job hard — and what makes it worth it. There's a lot that happens behind the scenes before a student walks into a mock interview or shows up for a signing day. The planning, the coordination, the last-minute gaps that have to be filled.
"I really want parents and students to understand how much love and energy and time goes into planning events for students,"
"We just want our students to have the best opportunity for advancement, for learning, and all the other things that students need to be successful in their future careers."
SignUpGenius doesn't make the care and effort disappear. But it does make the logistics manageable — so that the energy Sandi spends on her program actually goes toward the students, not the spreadsheets.
A Long-Term Believer
Sandi has been using SignUpGenius for years, and her enthusiasm hasn't faded. If anything, it's grown alongside the program itself.
"I'm a firm believer that SignUpGenius is a wonderful tool, and I have really enjoyed using it over the years."
For a coordinator whose job spans students, employers, schools, and an entire season of events — that kind of staying power says something. It's not just that SignUpGenius is useful in a pinch. It's that it keeps showing up, semester after semester, right when things get hectic.
"I just appreciate SignUpGenius being there for me to keep myself organized."
Ready to keep your program organized?
Whatever you're coordinating — student schedules, employer visits, or community events — SignUpGenius helps you stay on top of everything.
SignUpGenius has been a huge boost for our organization. It allows us to be organized and efficient when scheduling our customers. It also gives us to the opportunity to include our customers in the scheduling process, leading to much better participation. We've heard nothing but positives from our customers about SignUpGenius' easy calendar view and sign up features.
Posted by Ally Patterson
