Emily Vickery is an Application Support Technician who supports Synergy, the district’s student information system. She and her husband, Aaron, have three young children. She works at the Information Services and Technology building. 

This is her My WPS Story.

I came to WPS from the banking industry. I had a huge passion for the customer service aspect of the industry but felt like it wasn’t what I was meant to do. I knew I loved working with children, so I decided to go back to school and get a degree in teaching. I needed a job while I went to school, so I moved back to my little hometown of Sedgwick, Kansas, and worked as a paraprofessional in the Sedgwick school district for four years.

I knew Wichita Public Schools was the largest school district in Kansas but didn’t know much else about it. It was important to me to begin working with a more diverse population of students, so I began looking for jobs within the district. I was hired as an interrelated paraprofessional at Cleaveland Traditional Magnet in 2013 and worked there for four years.

As I continued in my education and learned more about WPS, I decided to switch my major from teaching to psychology and human services. I knew I wanted to work with students in some way but teaching just didn’t quite check all the boxes for me. I was ready to make a change in my career but wanted to stay with the district. My principal at Cleaveland, who recently moved to Dodge Literacy Magnet, knew I was interested in trying something new. Dodge had an opening for a clerical position there, so I took the leap and jumped in!

I moved to Dodge at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. I completely fell in love with being an Administrative Assistant. It was perfect because I still got to work with kids, but it gave me the opportunity to provide customer service, which I really missed.

I learned Synergy very quickly and grew to love what it could do. I started to think about ways I could eventually move up and help others in the district who also used Synergy. As new clerks were hired, I became someone who they could call for help as they learned the system. I was so excited to teach and help them.

One day there was a post in our clerical Teams page that some positions for tech support were open at the Information Services and Technology building. This was a building that I knew very little about. All I knew was that the position would allow me to directly support not only clerical, but all district staff, with Synergy.

I was hired in December 2021 as an Application Support Technician. In this position, I get to support all the clerical positions in the district, as well as administration who use Synergy. This position is truly the culmination of every passion I’ve ever had: Working with children, customer service and technology.

Now that I am at the IST building and have worked with all the wonderful people and departments here, I know just how truly important the work that is done here is. Technology is used in every aspect of WPS, and it all runs smoothly thanks to their hard work.

I know firsthand the whirlwind that is clerical, and I know how daunting it can feel trying to learn such an important student information system on top of all that. It’s important to me to be able to support office staff because I know how it feels when you do not have the resources to learn how to do your job. 

I have a lot of big dreams for my career with the district, but my goal is to continue providing support and resources and really provide more and more hands-on training for the staff that use Synergy in the district.