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Jessica Warrington, Boston University '02, now works as Associate Director of Communications at Brown University.
On the job: "I've always been a curious person, and a bookworm if you will, so I've valued both formal and informal education since I was a young child. I even remember asking teachers for worksheets I could complete over the summer as "homework"! I've especially loved learning about people and cultures, all things science related, and I love finding ways to share interesting ideas with others, especially in written form. That milieu is what originally led me to double-major in biological anthropology and magazine journalism at BU.
After graduating, I worked for a few years at a local magazine, which gave me great experience with newsletter-writing, which in turn, gave me the right experience to land a marketing communications job at the Museum of Science in Boston. And I really loved it there. I stayed for seven or eight years, and it was there that I realized how much I valued working in a place centered on learning.
A too-far-to-be-commutable move eventually brought me to Brown University in Providence, where I spent several years in the Advancement division before finding my way back to my science-adjacent roots, now at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. And I think that’s what I like most about working in higher education: I get to be around people who are constantly asking questions, learning new things, and trying to both better understand the world and leave it a better place. Today, I get to work alongside incredible faculty, students, and staff—and help share their ideas, discoveries, and work with others. It feels like a pretty natural intersection of all the things I’ve always been drawn to, come to think of it!"
On succeeding on campus: "I'd say, now’s the time to dabble! Think of your college experience as one giant “yes day,” as my kids would say. Try the class that sounds interesting. Join the student group. Go to the event. Say yes to an opportunity even if you’re not quite sure where it will lead. You never know what might strike a chord and send you down a path you never would have considered otherwise.
I’m so grateful that I went to BU, where there seemed to be an endless array of opportunities to explore different interests. One of the most memorable was working for BU’s student-run newspaper, the Daily Free Press (affectionately known as the FREEP), first as a reporter and later as the Science Tuesday editor. I also had the chance to pursue not one but two majors across two different colleges — something I didn’t fully appreciate the rarity of at the time. Not to mention all the fascinating classes I took across fields, and odd-jobs I had, including making smoothies in a burrito shop, an administrative office job, and an internship at a Beauty magazine. I’m incredibly grateful for all the opportunities BU gave me, and to the Stephen Phillips Memorial Scholarship Fund, whose support made all those experiences possible."
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