Coming back to Nicholls is what she said she always wanted to do, and Nicole “Nikki” L. Boudreaux will become the director of student publications Tuesday. The 24-year-old Boudreaux is a 1998 Hall of Fame graduate of Nicholls in mass communication. While at Nicholls, she was a reporter and managing editor of The Nicholls Worth.

She also served as the publicity director for the Student Programming Association.

Boudreaux will succeed Lesley Marcello, who will leave the position tomorrow after 31 years.

“I’ve looked up to Mrs. Lesley for so many years. When you think of The Nicholls Worth or La Pirogue, the first thing you think of is Mrs. Lesley,” Boudreaux said.

“She has influenced me in so many ways, and I hope that I am as good of a manager as she has been. She’s passed on a lot of advice and a lot of information to me.

“I’ve got big shoes to fill. That’s for sure.”

Boudreaux said she considers Nicholls home, and, naturally, was eager to find her way back after working in the private sector since graduation.

“For me it was a great opportunity. I’ve always wanted to come back to Nicholls,” she said.

“I’ve been working in health care since right before I graduated, and it was fun, but I’ve been wanting to come back to Nicholls for a long time.”

Boudreaux said she never thought she would come back to Student Publications.

“I didn’t expect Mrs. Lesley to ever retire. Mrs. Lesley’s one of those people that I just felt like would be here forever,” Boudreaux said.

“I really didn’t know how I would come back. I just hoped that one day I would. I did not ever think that it would be here simply because Mrs. Lesley, I thought, would be here forever, but I’m glad it’s here.

“If I had to pick a place on campus to come back, this would be it.”

Boudreaux said her main goal is to work with students and help them become the best at what they do and to give them as much of a real world experience as she can.

“I want to help The Nicholls Worth and La Pirogue to be the best newspaper and yearbook that anybody has ever seen,” she said.

“Careerwise, my main goal is to finish my master’s degree to go on to get a Ph.D. to be able to become a professor in mass communication.”

Boudreaux said several things made her seek the position.

“First of all, journalism is my first love.”

Her degree has two concentrations: print and public relations. However, she said writing has always been what she enjoys doing the most.

“Another reason is that I really see a great opportunity working with students. I’ve always enjoyed campus life. I’ve always enjoyed being a part of Nicholls, and when I was working on The Nicholls Worth, I enjoyed working with the other students here.”

Boudreaux started working on her master’s degree at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette after graduating from Nicholls.

However, geography worked against her.

“The drive to Lafayette was really hard, working full time in a non-academic setting. So, this is giving me an opportunity as well to pursue my graduate degree and to have the support of the mass communication faculty who are kind of encouraging me.”

Boudreaux said her involvement went beyond The Nicholls Worth and SPA.

“When I was a student in mass communication, I wrote for Louisiana Roux. All of us were encouraged to write for that. I wrote for Chez Nous [the magazine of the mass communication department.] So, I got a lot of writing experience.

“Also, we were encouraged to do internships, and that’s how I ended up getting my first full-time job out of college. I did an internship at Terrebonne General, and then they hired me on full-time,” she said.

“So, the experience I got both at The Nicholls Worth and through the department of mass communication were just incredible. I think it definitely has a direct effect on what I’ve been able to do.”

She said she chose to come to Nicholls and liked it because of the size.

“I felt that it was small enough for every thing to be hands-on yet large enough for you to get wonderful experience.

“I couldn’t imagine being at LSU and getting to interview the chancellor whereas at Nicholls I did have more than one opportunity to interview Dr. Ayo or the administrators.”

Some of the faculty also left an impression on Boudreaux.

“Dr. Lloyd Chiasson in mass communication was a great influence over my writing skills. He taught me feature writing. Straight news came so easy for me.”

Boudreaux said she was initially “leery” about feature writing, but it would eventually become her strongest area and what she liked most to do.

“Chiasson had a lot to do with that. He pushed me a lot.

“[Dr.] Rick Duet, also in mass communications, helped me with countless things, graphic design, layout, and, also, with speaking in front of people.”

Boudreaux remembers Duet’s relentless instruction.

“For my senior public relations class we had to do a campaign for Nicholls’ 50th anniversary, and he was making us do a presentation to the president and all his cabinet members.

“He kept us here on a Sunday afternoon practicing hours upon hours upon hours on the presentation, and I never thought I’d feel comfortable speaking in front of people until he finished with me,” she said.

“So, that has been a tremendous help, too, in the last few years because I’ve had to do lots of presentations since I’ve graduated.”

Boudreaux said Anne Trahan, assistant professor of English, was also influential.

“She was the first person who ever told me I could write. She has a lot to do with where I am now. I knew I liked to write, but I didn’t realize I was any good at it,” she said.

Boudreaux first became involved with The Nicholls Worth as a contributing writer.

“I realized how much I liked doing it, and I liked seeing my name in print.”

The next semester she became a reporter and worked her way to being managing editor, which she said was a great experience.

“It’s the first time I really had to work with other people my age and have to try to figure out that fine line.

“I would say it was challenging. It was stressful. It was fun. It was wonderful. I’m so glad that I did it. I really am.”

During her junior year, she received an internship from Terrebonne General and had to quit working at the newspaper.

The internship paid off, and she was hired by hospital after graduation.

“I was the writer/producer in the community relations department at Terrebonne General in Houma. My basic responsibility was to get the magazine out. They published a quarterly magazine.

Media relations and advertising were her other responsibilities at Terrebonne General.

“Then I was hired to be the community relations coordinator at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center. I did a little bit of everything there. I wrote for all the publications that the hospital sent out.

“Last summer I was hired as the community educator and physician marketer for Thibodaux Region Home Health. I was kind of like a liaison between the agency and the physicians.”

In her time in the health care industry, Boudreaux said she was struck by the heroics of medical professionals.

“I could not do what they do. I could have the compassion, but the way they deal with life and death every day, and people put their entire trust with their life in the hands of these people, and I admire them.

“They are probably some of the people I admire the most,” she said.

“They know so much and they can make decisions in a split second. They have to. I honestly know I could not do that. I could not be a nurse. I could not be a doctor.”

Bo
udreaux is from Paincourtville and graduated from Ascension Catholic High School in Donaldsonville, where she was yearbook editor.

She lives in Thibodaux with her husband Tony and six-month-old daughter Adele.

“Getting married and having a child has changed me completely. You no longer live for yourself. You no longer put yourself first. Everyday is a new experience. It’s just incredible,” she said.