The Voice of JHA: Sydney Clugston Keeps People Moving

Behind every successful project is a team working to keep things running smoothly. At JHA Companies, that teamwork often begins at the front desk. As the first voice many clients hear and the first face visitors see, receptionist Sydney Clugston plays an important role in helping connect people, solve problems, and keep daily operations moving forward.

Sydney’s story begins in Franklin County, Pennsylvania:
“I grew up in the Shippensburg, Pennsylvania area. I’ve always lived here in Franklin County. I grew up with my brother, he’s about four years older than me, and my parents, and we pretty much just stayed in this general area. I grew up going to the Shippensburg Area School District. I went to cyber school about halfway through my sophomore year, and that allowed me to graduate high school a year early. I graduated in 2018 and then took a gap year. I then ended up going to Harrisburg Area Community College online for my associate’s in business administration. I still live with my parents, Patti and Dave. I’m enjoying my time at home while I still can and saving up my money to be able to get out on my own.”
Her early graduation and pursuit of a business degree helped prepare her for a role centered on organization, communication, and helping others. “I’m the receptionist here at JHA Companies, so I take all the calls that come in. Whatever you’re calling for, engineering, architecture, survey, environmental, most of the time you’re going to talk to me. I am able to get you to wherever you need to go or just take the information to get you started on a project. After that, I assist with building projects, getting them where they need to go, doing behind the scenes work.”

Much of her work helps remove the small obstacles that can slow people down.
“I enjoy helping the people around me get their projects across the finish line. Or just those little things that get people stuck, like, you know, Word document formatting, things like that can throw someone off their day or just slow down their day. I really enjoy being the person that can come in and just, you know, ‘click click’, and solve the problem. I have my notary license in Pennsylvania, that comes in handy on occasion.”

Outside of work, Sydney prefers a quieter pace of life. “I’m very introverted, so I like to just spend time with myself outside of work, reading, watching a good movie, or just spending time with friends and family. I enjoy crocheting. I took that up in the last year or so.”
Sydney first discovered JHA while searching for opportunities online, and the company culture immediately stood out. “I looked into the company and whenever I saw that JHA was a faith-based company, it drew me in and I became more interested. I grew up going to church, so most of my long-term friendships and relationships that I’ve built are from church. It was nice to know that if I was coming here, it was going to be the familiar sense that I grew up with of people that I knew that I could trust.”

Even though she did not initially have experience in the engineering industry, she quickly found a supportive environment where she could learn. “I wasn’t familiar with engineering or surveying but knowing that they were willing to help me learn and help me adjust to the position was what drew me in and made me more comfortable. I’ve been able to learn things about environmental services, engineering, surveying. I had no idea about the different things that would go into all these different industries. And then architecture, I’ve just learned so much about what architecture really is, and it’s not so much the pretty buildings. There’s more to it than just the aesthetics. So, I’ve been able to learn about how things actually work.”

See Sydney’s Team Member Spotlight video at: