Her Story
About Jessica
Jessica Reese is a graduate student in athletic training at the University of South Carolina, where she is earning her Master's degree. She previously earned a Bachelor's of Exercise Science with a concentration in Pre-Health from Troy University. As a member of the National Athletic Training Association, Reese is building her expertise through rotational hours with certified athletic trainers and an internship with the Huntsville Havoc professional hockey team in the Southern Professional Hockey League. She values dedication and giving her full effort to every task. Reese credits her progress to the mentors she has shadowed, along with the support of family, friends, and professors. She advises aspiring professionals to absorb all available information and experiences, recognizing that there are multiple approaches to any challenge.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jessica
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the people that I've shadowed under and anyone that's supported me up until this point, including mentors, family, friends, and professors. I don't think I'd have been able to get here without their support.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice someone gave me would probably be just to take in all of the information you can, and all the different experiences you have. Even if you've learned something in a different way in the past, being able to take in new information that someone's teaching you, and focus in that there's multiple ways to do things, and you can maybe build on those and use them to grow yourself as a professional.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them to just keep pushing. You know, just because you're a woman in the field doesn't mean that you can't do something, and if it hasn't been done before, push towards it anyway. You never know if you could be the one to break through it.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge, especially as a woman, is that some opportunities haven't been open to women yet, or if they're open, they haven't quite been achieved yet. Different positions and levels in athletic training are only men, certain leagues of sports. It's open to women, but it hasn't quite been done yet, so it's kind of a challenge to keep pushing and getting myself to that point and becoming the first.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Probably dedication to what we're doing, what I'm doing in particular, you know, going in full force of it, and knowing that if I'm at work, or if I'm doing anything in general, that I need to be giving my 100% to that thing at the moment.
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