Secretary: Sophia S. Chin - The Many-Splendored Faces of Today's Black Woman

Ebony, March, 1997 by Muriel L. Whetstone Sims

Sophia S. Chin constantly receives strange reactions to her name. "I got the name from my husband, Norman," she explains. "His mom is Caucasian and his dad is Chinese. I've gotten used to the reactions I get from people. I remember once someone came to me looking for Sophia Chin and I said, I'm Sophia Chin., The person looked at me and said, `No you're not.'"

Names are strange that way. As the world turns and time and circumstances change, society continuously cycles through various labels to characterize individuals and groups of people. And attached to the labels are a whole host of both positive and negative connotations. Fifty years ago, for instance, Chin would have been described as a Negro secretary. Today, she's an African@ American executive assistant.

An executive assistant for Andersen Consulting in its New York City office, Chin is also a student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. She regularly juggles three to four night classes a week, a set of demanding work-related responsibilities, and the needs of her husband and the family cocker spaniel who await at home. Chins life is full -- to say the least. "Its hard," she says of her multifaceted lifestyle, "but if you want something, if you want it really bad, you can manage.

The 26-year-old gives much of the credit for her can-do spirit to her dad and mom, Samuel and Violet McDonald, who reared her and two sisters in suburban New jersey. "I owe everything to them," says Chin. "I dim they did a really great job.... They taught me values that I still treasure today. They were always there for me, and they still are."

Given her parents, example, its not surprising that Chin considers one of her strongest character traits the fact that she's dependable. "I like to know that I'm needed and that people can depend on me," she says. "I think that's the main purpose of being an executive assistant, knowing that you're always there for your boss. I like that feeling. I like knowing I can be there for someone."

There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when being there for the boss also meant a secretary made the morning coffee, picked up the dry cleaning and performed a wide variety of other tasks that didn't have much to do with typing and answering telephones. But like the title that describes them, an executive assistants responsibilities have changed with time as wen.

Today, many assistants would be offended by a request to do their boss, Christmas shopping, and most bosses wouldn't have the nerve to ask. Whatever name a company chooses to call them, contemporary secretaries are now seen as important members of a team. Their superiors expect them to contribute to the smooth operation and execution of a team. And they expect the same. "Sometimes people think executive assistants don't really know what's going on," says Chin. "They think its a boring job. I want to let young females know that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye."