In some of my past blogs... I have written stories about my roommates and some of my close friends. This past semester I met a new student whom I have been very impressed with. I knew from the first time I saw her notes accented in three different colors of highlights that she meant serious business! Without any offense to any of my past group members (Frankie Warren and Mark Cathy particularly)... this girl has been the best group member I have had at Pepperdine.
Her name is Jenna Burkey and you couldn’t ask for a better group member. Ya know when you’re working on a group project and there is something that needs to be done for the group that no one really wants to do? Jenna is your person. When your group is bummed out because you have to meet on a Saturday morning... Who has brought cupcakes for the group? True story. When you have to do background studies for a particular project topic... Who actually enjoys research? Yes, also true. When you’re juggling multiple classes, many deadlines and are confused as to what has to be done... I think you’re starting to get the picture.
Jenna Burkey is easily worth two or possibly even three group members in terms of adding value to the team. I was fortunate enough to be able to work with her last session in our “Designing and Managing International Organizations” course and now once again in our “Creating and Leading Teams” class. When we got the chance to select our teams for our current class, I jumped at the opportunity to work with Jenna again. Having Jenna as a member of my current group gives me the upmost confidence that not only will our project turn out well, but that the group will have a great time during the process. I know that if it comes down to the wire... and we needed to overhaul the whole project the night before, I know that she would be there with me until the end.
Jenna is a member of a program at Pepperdine called “The 5-Year MBA”. In this joint undergraduate and graduate program, she will earn both her Bachelors in Business Administration with a concentration in Non-Profit Management and her MBA in Organizational Leadership and Change Management. The fact that she came straight from college into her MBA makes her contribution level that much more impressive. In terms of group performance, Jenna outperforms experienced professionals with 5-10 years of work experience.
Post-MBA, Jenna is planning on continuing her work with her family’s nonprofit foundation called “The Wood-Claeyssens Foundation”. The foundation provides grants for select organizations in the Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Jenna is already very active with the foundation holding a director position and attending many foundation-community events. You can check it out at woodclaeyssensfoundation.com.
When I try to picture my future career performance, I will strive to be seen as “The Jenna Burkey” of my future teams. And yes... the picture below is the thank you card she gave out to each individual group member on our team after the successful completion of our final presentation. Yes I'm serious... that is the spirit of Jenna Burkey. We love you Jenna!!!
