About Jenna

I was twelve years old when I first experimented with a set of oil paints. It was at this point my mother recognized my interest in art as being more than casual. There were a number of classes offered to students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago during the summer and I was fortunate to grow up near enough to take advantage of them. However, this required me to take the train to Chicago alone. The train takes forty-five minutes and it stops directly in front of the Art Institute. Although this was not a challenging commute by any means, I give my mother credit for teaching me at the tender age of twelve that “life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage” as stated by Anais Nin. Looking back, I recognize that my journey into the city of Chicago was  the first of many adventures that shaped who I am today.

At age sixteen, my mother encouraged me to take a computer tech course at the local vocational school. She told me I would thank her one day, and I have never been more thankful. During the course, I was introduced to HTML, Flash, computer diagnosis, and repair. The final project was to build your own computer. This experience made me realize the potential web design had to combine my technical aptitude and artistic ability. This also laid the foundation for my experience in graphic design since I began using Photoshop and Illustrator at that time.

Following my graduation from high school, I began my pursuit of a career that would combine technical knowledge and artistic skill. I enrolled at the University of Iowa with a double major in biomedical engineering and studio art. The dual degree program takes 5 years to complete and it was mandatory to fulfill all requirements for both the College of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Since I needed to complete a language requirement, I decided to spend a summer in Florence, Italy. The most enriching class I took while abroad was a course on the built environment of Florence. During each class we would walk around the city and our teacher would tell us about the architecture. This is where I first gained an interest in the artistic and technical aspects of our built environment.

Traveling is addictive, and my craving was far from satisfied. I decided to study abroad once more for a semester in Australia. I met two of my best friends while abroad, and I also had one of the most significant epiphanies of my life. I realized that I was pursuing the wrong career.

During our spring break from school, I decided to travel to New Zealand by myself. Traveling alone is a wonderful experience. I met many fascinating people and I found the mysterious and awe-inspiring natural beauty of the country absolutely captivating. As stated by Albert Einstein, “He … who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” I left the country with a new appreciation for preserving the natural beauty of the world we live in. You can view youtube videos of my travels here.

On my arrival home from Australia, I changed my major to civil/environmental engineering and studio art. I thought the area of civil engineering would better suit my interests in the environment, sustainability, and design. This decision gave me the opportunity to work with four intelligent, motivated students and complete the project of a lifetime. Our team was called Continental Crossings. We had the desire to combine our extramural interests with our curriculum, thus creating an augmented senior-design project. Although we aimed to surpass academic requirements, our main goal was to provide assistance to those in the developing world by designing and building a standardized foot-bridge for a rural community in Peru. Our team traveled to this extremely remote location twice and the bridge construction was completed in June 2007. Watch the youtube video I created for the team.

In addition to my Continental Crossing contributions, civil engineering gave me the opportunity to work with IIHR -Hydroscience and Engineering. IIHR is one of our nation's oldest and most preeminent hydraulic research and teaching laboratories. I was extremely fortunate to have an employer who gave me numerous opportunities and garnered my utmost respect. I was able to participate in a short term study abroad program on water resource management in Turkey, contribute to the development of laboratory experiments for the fluid mechanics course, act as a teaching assistant for that course, and gain experience in web design. Although I will always think fondly of my time spent at IIHR, by the time my degree was complete, I had finally learned that engineering alone could not satisfy my creative desires.

In July 2007 I moved to Denver, CO. After all of my travels, I find myself drawn to mountains. Currently I am enrolled in a master’s degree program studying Architecture. My goal, once again, is to combine my talents in a way that will make a positive impact on the world. Looking back I have found that art and creativity have been inextricably bound to everything I have accomplished thus far and I am sure that will continue. Sometimes I think of myself as the child on that train, and then I think about how far I have traveled, and how much further I have yet to go.