Jessica Anavim - Her Life Part 2!

Hey everyone, Alex here!

Jess with fellow Colleague Ally K at Lyp Since for AEPhi!

Since Whitney has already done an amazing job detailing Jessica’s life up until college, I sat down to have lunch with Jess at North Dining Hall to hear all about her experiences!  She’s wicked chill and has a good sense of humor, so it was nice to get to know her better!

Jess rocking out at Huskython!!!!

When Jess came to UConn as a freshman, she was a physiology and neurobiology major (eventually picking up a minor in Communications).  Since you can easily get buckled down studying with such a tough major, she made the right move by becoming involved in tons of different organizations and met TONS of different people. Not only did she join Hillel and Pre-medical Society, but also she ended up going greek!  When I asked how she met her core group of friend, she said that “other than her awesome colleagues at the LVC, she got involved with a sorority (even though she NEVER thought in a million years she would join greek life)!”  Now she is a proud sister of AEPhi, and has surely made herself known through various leadership positions.  She did a lot of the marketing and publicity for Hillel,  recruiting for her sorority, and now does a lot of public speaking at the Visitor Center and as a Morale Captain for Huskython (which is one of her favorite things during the year).

Originally a physiology/neurobiology major on the pre-medical track, her favorite class on campus was Stem Cell Biology with Dr. Joanne Conover in the PNB department.  Not only was it a really interesting but they did a lot of really cool field trips during class in order see how the things studied in the lab apply in real life.  One of the trips was to the Genome and Health Science Center at the UConn Health Center in Farmington.  Not only was she excused from all her classes for the day, but they were able to spend the entire day in a stem cell research lab and actually try out the techniques they had been learning about in class!

Jessica being legit as a business woman

Even though she had a great experience with this class, she soon realized that the medical field wasn’t for her.  Her classes seemed to be more of a chore than something she wanted to do, so she started to think of other careers that would be a better fit.  After handling a lot of the marketing and public relations committee work for her clubs , she decided that she wanted to pursue business (which she could actually see herself in a field like this after graduation).

Having completed her sophomore year and already having taken a lot of science classes that didn’t overlap well with business, she applied to the School of Business and took some required classes over the summer in order to stay on track.  Now that she has been accepted – she’s into business classes and loving it!  She is hoping to go into advertising or public relations so that she can use her creativity and have a job where she can think outside the box.

Even though she has been through a roller coaster ride of different activities and academic decisions, she still has a few things she wants to do before she graduates!  Not only does she want to go to One Ton Sundae, but also get on the Jumbo-tron at one of the basketball games.  So if you see her jumping up and down like a hooligan, you will know why!