Jessica Laessig

I started my career knowing I wanted to work in higher education, so I went to Northern Arizona University for my master's degree in student affairs. I immediately started working for NAU as a student worker, then as a graduate assistant, then as an academic advisor, and then I started to move into the community college world, which was a completely different world from the university. I started working for some specialized programs at our community college, and one of those programs is a very well-known federal program called TRIO. I was the director of a TRIO program for 7 years, working with students who are classified as first generation, low income, or have a disability. Helping those students navigate college was a really great experience for me. We would take those students on experiential-led field trips around the country - every summer, I would take a group of students on a bus and we would drive to different states, visit different universities along the way, and go to art galleries and museums and national parks. These were students who, because of the situations in their life, didn't always have those opportunities to even leave the town that they were in or travel much. Then I took an opportunity to move into marketing and communications, which is where I've been now for about the last 5 years. I've worked at 3 different institutions, and at each one, I've had the opportunity to help launch new mascots into existence, which has become a niche specialty of mine.