Last week, students, faculty, and staff said goodbye to a beloved, if less well known, member of the Choate community. On September 29, after 29 years with the school, Accountant Ms. Nijole Janik retired. Ms. Janik joined Choate’s financial office in the fall of 1988.
Ms. Janik has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Connecticut, but, as a lover of math, she had always aimed to work in finance. After college, she took an adult-education course in bookkeeping, learning how to track an institution’s daily monetary transactions properly. Ms. Janik said, “I caught on quickly. The teacher told me just to read the book, since I really didn’t need to come to class.”
From there, Ms. Janik began to apply for openings in accounting. “I looked in the help-wanted section of the newspaper,” Ms. Janik said, “which is unheard of these days.” Before coming to Choate, she worked in the finance division at the Central Bank in Meriden. Then, in August of 1998, she called the school’s personnel director, who asked her to come in for an interview. “And that was the beginning.” Ms. Janik recalled.
According to the department’s mission statement, its role is to “provide quality financial information and services to the Choate Community and its related party in an accurate, timely, and friendly manner.” In truth, Choate would not run without its financial office. The department’s performs all the school’s bookkeeping, pays its bills, processes tuition from students, manages students’ accounts, and oversees each department’s budget. It also reports this information, when needed, for taxes and to the Board of Trustees. Ms. Janik ensured that transactions were correctly reconciled in the school’s general ledger. “Making sure everything is accurate,” Ms. Janik said. “That’s number one.” When figures do not match, Ms. Janik went on, “it’s kind of like being a detective, and I enjoy that very much.”
Ms. Olga Pivazyan, Choate’s Accounting Manager, said, “Nijole was a dedicated employee with exceptional organization skills and work ethic.” She added, “At the end of day, you have to be sure everything is balanced and processed properly. Nijole did a great job. It doesn’t matter what you ask of her, it will be done accurately and on time — actually, no, ahead of time.”
Outside of her her work at Choate, Ms. Janik has a diverse array of interests. Ms. Pivazyan said, “She loves music, she loves to sing, and I know she has a very warm heart. When people are having difficult times, she will just crochet an afghan and give it as a gift.”
And those are some of theactivities that Ms. Janik plans to pursue after she retires. Already a cantor at her church, she is looking forward to getting more involved there, by joining a prayer-shawl crochet group. She also hopes to travel more with her husband, spend time with friends and family, read, and volunteer. “But I want to see what retirement feels like first,” Ms. Janik explained.
As for Choate, Ms. Janik said, “It’s how well people work together here. Everybody here is very motivated — they care about the school, they care about the students, and they want to do the best job they can.
