Sonya: the best of the Nest

Sonya Owens is a bit of a phenomenon. Everyone on campus knows her. She may well be the most popular person at AU and she isn’t even a student. Sonya is, as many no doubt know, a clerk at the Eagle’s Nest. She’s just a larger-than-life personality at the store that her devoted fans call her the Queen of the Eagle’s Nest.

Some students might not know the Queen by name, but certainly they would recognize the ringlet-wearing, hip-hop-dancing diva of the night shift. Sonya is hard to miss.

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While most of the campus community sleeps, she stands her post behind the counter. The store’s sound system blares “Love Song” or “99 Problems” or “No Air.” Throughout the night and into the wee hours of the morning, students trudge bleary-eyed through the Eagle’s Nest’s doors to find feisty Sonya shouting a salutation. “What’s going on?!” she asks. “Can I help you, sweatheart?”

And help us she does. Night after night, Sonia sells students those crucial snacks, sweets and energy drinks. She lines us up and swipes AU IDs with swift, deliberate strokes. She asks us how we are. This sounds trite, but when work and fatigue has us feeling down, she truly cheers us up. She doles out fist bumps. She gives out hugs. She literally has been a shoulder to cry on for some students.

Sonya talks openly about how much she loves her job. The Eagle’s Nest is her haven of bliss, the place where she gets to spend time with the AU students she adores. She gets sad when each graduating class moves on. “They have become like family,” she said, adding that she hopes graduates to come back to campus and visit her.

The Queen of the Eagle’s Nest deserves a proclamation for the service she provides to AU. She makes this campus a better place every night she shows up for work. Sonya truly is an unsung hero in our midst.

It may be that the university cannot recognize Sonya for what she does, but students certainly can. And we should start by letting her know how we feel about her.

She told The Eagle recently that she loves her students and hopes they love her back.

Well, they do, Sonya.

We do.