A Classification Talk: Jennifer Jacobson
You don't realize how small the Rotary world is until you realize you've met someone in another lifetime. In my first year as a executive with Brock Niagara Rotaract in university, I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 Club Assembly for District 7090 in Niagara Falls, NY. This club assembly was memorable to me for more than few a reasons (I fondly remember having a light continental breakfast of pound cake), but it is also where I heard Jennifer Jacobson speak for the first time about her experiences as a Rotary Peace Fellow.
Through my brief experiences with the E-Club of SOWNY (Southern Ontario Western New York), our club got to interview candidates from around the world vying to be selected as international Peace Fellows. If you're interested to see what the eligibility for these candidates is, you can visit the eligibility quiz here.
It is my pleasure this week, to introduce our own graduate of the Rotary Peace Fellowship program, Jennifer Jacobson.
Jennifer's first introduction into Rotary was through the Group Study Exchange program. She was an alternate for the Australia team and then was selected to travel to Japan in 2009.
Jennifer says it's hard to pick out one single favourite moment out of all of her Rotary experiences, since they've all been amazing. In her words. "I think my GSE experience in Japan really hooked me to Rotary; we were treated like rock stars and it was my first experience staying with host families...the first family I stayed with was only two nights and when it was time to leave I couldn't believe how emotional I was. For complete strangers to open their home and be so kind and we really connected despite the language barrier. After that, I think I cried every time I had to leave a host family".
Jennifer is originally from Mount Pleasant near Brantford, and ended up in Chatham-Kent for a relationship that didn't work out. Her parents were both paramedics, so she was always raised around emergency services and knew that she wanted to be police officer since she was 2 or 3 years old old.
Jennifer was drawn to her job by the excitement and wanting to help, in addition she appreciates the variety her job brings. Outside of work, Jennifer enjoys board games including her favourite, Backgammon, in addition to Scrabble & Trivia! She additionally enjoys hiking and exploring, including traveling and exploring new environments. As a nature lover, she gets super excited seeing and learning about trees and plants we don't have here.
Jennifer is also a cat person, and finds herself without a cat for the first time. Her cat Snoop passed away suddenly last July and is missed greatly.
I look forward to getting to know Jennifer on Tuesday morning!