25 Years of Service: Esther Lonto

Senior Accountant, Office of Financial Records

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Esther Lonto began working as an accountant at Andrew University in 1998. At 25 years she is the longest-serving member of the Office of Financial Records. With this 25 years of service comes a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of Andrews University.

Throughout her time at Andrews University, she has supported a multitude of accounting functions. Twenty-five years in University accounting equates to 300 month-end closings, performing thousands of reconciliations and suffering through 25 audits. It also includes participation in numerous training events and represents thousands of hours of assisting faculty, staff and student organizations with their accounting needs. These needs can range from answering simple procedural questions to researching and finding solutions for special transactional or reporting requirements.

In her role as manager of the IDC system she has issued hundreds of IDC cards and trained and assisted a multitude of employees in their use of this system. Her responsibilities with regard to University banking have taken her through multiple bank mergers and takeovers requiring the mastery of new software systems and banking procedures. Working with bankers and University staff, each time Esther has faithfully shepherded the University through the chaos, all the while ensuring the safeguarding of University assets.

Her experience in this area has been a helpful resource to Financial Administration as well, “Esther is diligent and helpful when working with Financial Administration on certain operating banking questions. She knows the right places to obtain the answers needed for their questions.”

Through the years Esther has gone over and above in support of the International Food Fair, putting in extra hours in support of planning, seeing that tickets are ready, sales go smoothly, and participants are accurately credited with their earnings. She has been a consistent and reliable source of knowledge and support for that event.

She has also had the opportunity to work with many student employees providing guidance and hands-on experience for burgeoning accountants.

In 2009 she was awarded the Excellence in Service Award. Multiple employees expressed their appreciation of her willingness to answer questions.

Recently, a colleague from another department indicated: “I've worked with Esther on different projects during my 16 years here at Andrews University. I have always found her approachable and helpful in addressing my concerns. We have solved puzzles and challenges together, and she is always pleasant. I don't think I have ever brought up a challenge that she has not been able to solve or give me direction. We have implemented systems together that have helped our department function better with Financial Records. Esther is detail oriented, punctual, goes above and beyond. We also share a common team. Go Bears!”

In addition to her work at the University, Esther has always been very supportive of the University Schools. She consistently has made herself available to help with field trips and parent-teacher organizations and has long been a supporter of the Junior Cardinals program.

In all, year after year she has provided faithful, reliable, professional services to the University. Thank you, Esther, for your 25 years of commitment to Andrews University.