CMU Mom Greets Visitors with a Smile

Kim Bittner welcomes thousands of visitors to Carnegie Mellon University from her reception desk in the Office of Undergraduate Admission lobby. A CMU staff member and proud parent of four CMU students, she has many good things to share about the university with prospective families.

“I love customer service. I love dealing with the public and really enjoy talking with the people I come in contact with all day long,” she said. “A lot of parents — especially if it’s their first child going off to college — they have a little bit of trepidation, so I try to ease their minds by sharing some of my experiences as a CMU Mom with them.”

Bittner, whose husband is an engineer in CMU’s National Engineering and Robotics Center, has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Duquesne University and years of experience in customer service.  At CMU, she fields questions from prospective families in person and over the phone. They call her to schedule campus tours and get information on events they want to attend.

She recalls one family who was struggling to make a decision between CMU and another school last year.

“The mother was very nervous. It was her only son. He would be leaving home, and they were so worried about finding the right place for him,” she said.

About a month ago, the mother returned to Bittner’s desk, smiling.

“They ended up choosing CMU, and she said she just had to come back and tell me what a wonderful first year her son had,” she said. “He loves it!”

Bittner enjoys being part of the CMU community, where she says people are "so passionate about what they are doing."

“Carnegie Mellon is a great place to work, to be educated and to visit. It’s just a wonderful place to be,” she said. “Andrew Carnegie said, ‘My heart is in the work,’ and you can see the people who work and go to school here really convey that motto in their everyday life.”

When she’s not at work, Bittner enjoys going to the movies, walking for exercise and spending time with her family.

“All six of us in my family have loved being a part of CMU — as an employee or a student — and we just try to project that positivity wherever we go,” she said. “We have a lot to tell people about the CMU experience, and it’s all good.

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