Jen has served in the college’s hunger/homeless ministry and Project Serve; led a Spring Service Project trip to Spartanburg, South Carolina; and traveled to Togo, Africa, as a Summer of Service team member. She's currently developing an accounting program for Togo Pioneers, the missionary agency she worked with last summer. Jen also participated in a service-learning trip to Romania—then helped lead Portage, Northwestern’s outdoor adventure and experiential learning program for new students. And she has worked as an intern for Principal Financial in Des Moines. During the school year, Jen volunteers with a local church’s junior high youth group each week. She eventually would like to work for a Christian ministry by providing for its computer and business needs.

Networks and servers
“I’m a youth sponsor in an Orange City church, so each week I help with games, small group discussions and worship. In one of my computer classes, I was required to make a website, so I chose to do my project for the youth group to give the parents and teens a place for updates, photos, and a forum to fellowship with their friends.”

Making it compute
“During my summer internship with Principal Financial in Des Moines, I did quite a bit of research for the company in preparation for its switch to a new Windows operating system. I can’t even begin to list all that I learned at Principal. They really invest in teaching you—even if you’re just an intern—which I appreciated a lot. I also did Web development and updates. I enjoyed programming in Java to test methods of connecting to a database. My e-commerce course at Northwestern was the biggest help in preparation for my internship. Everything I learned in that class I used.”

More than a machine
“Northwestern has given me many opportunities to develop my leadership skills. During my time in Romania, I learned a lot about leadership through hands-on experience. We were trained in ropes courses and initiative and group-building activities, and then we led an adventure program for Romanian kids. Later that summer, I was able to rejoin this leadership team to trek through the Boundary Waters with a group of new freshmen in the college’s Portage program.”