Staff Spotlight: Jess Dyrdahl

Hometown: Fargo, North Dakota Fun Fact: Busy training for her first marathon this summer!

Jess Dyrdahl has an innate sense of adventure. The Fargo, North Dakota, native claims she caught the travel bug early in life and her wanderlust has taken her abroad through her collegiate experience, across the country and eventually pointed her north to Alaska.

"I had always wanted to live abroad," says Jess. "And Alaska kind of seemed like living abroad." Jess first came to Alaska for an internship at UAA in 2009 and fell in love with the state's wildness and larger-than-life mountains. After receiving her master's degree in higher education and student affairs, she heard through the grapevine that UAA was looking for someone to lead their Student Clubs and Greek Life program. She applied, got the job and made the trek north.

It's a big job. Last semester about 78 clubs signed up through her office and she oversees all of them, as well as running the two sororities and one fraternity on campus, but she's up to the task with her outgoing personality, charismatic energy and beaming smile.

"The department I work in has great opportunities to have constant interaction with students," Jess says of her job. Her office, located in UAA's Student Union, is constantly abuzz with students coming in and out asking about how to start or get involved in a student club or join one of the Greek organizations on campus.

Her days are busy and begin early with her jumping on emails and the rest of her day dotted with meetings and the daily hustle and bustle of her office. "I have a fish bowl kind of office," says Jess laughing, explaining that everyone can see her in their open office arrangment. But she enjoys being in the thick of the action on campus and loves being a part of her students' lives. Through her work she gets to know all of the student clubs and organizations and surprisingly manages to make time to be involved with their individual activities and campus happenings.

"I work on a few committees, like Homecoming, and if there are other program meetings, I try to attend those," she says. "It's amazing to have so many active clubs with two sororities and one fraternity."  This past year, Jess even worked as an adjunct instructor, leading Guidance 150, a student seminar that covered topics from time management to how to study for a class.

"Kind of a survival guide for your first year," says Jess laughing. She recognizes that the transition from high school student to college student isn't always easy and that for many students, it's the first time they're shouldering the responsibility of taking care of themselves and it's a lot to take on. But, that's why she's chosen a career in higher education working in student affairs. She knows her job is important to providing students guidance and support as they develop.

Jess says that besides overseeing almost 80 student clubs, organizations and Greek life, she also feels it's important to provide leadership opportunities and experiences for UAA students. In fall 2011 she worked with her supervisor, Paula Fish, to launch the Emerging Leaders Program. Together they also organized a campus-wide conference that included students from the Kenai Peninsula and Mat-Su campuses.

"If we had 40 people come, I would've been happy, but we had about three times that many," says Jess. Since she and Paula began the program it has been successful and this year they were able to bring up a former colleague of Jess's, the World Champion of Public Speaking, from down south to speak at the event. Her job also includes participating in Howl Days before the school year starts, manning a booth at the Student Involvement Fair at the beginning of each semester and in general keeping Student Clubs and Greek Life at the top of students' minds.

"We have multiple ways to get students involved," says Jess. "A couple of years ago we started a newsletter called, 'This Week's Opportunities,' which we send out to students and faculty advisors. Every other week we hold Club Council, which is where I get to meet with all clubs and I'm pretty familiar with most of the leadership in each of the clubs." Jess says students from Club Council are also represented in USUAA Student Government.

When Jess is not running between club meetings and chatting with students in the Student Union, she's busy helping the two sororities and one fraternity on campus get their voice heard above the roar of all the other activities for students to participate in. She says that Greek life at UAA is not your cookie-cutter typical sorority and fraternity that most people think of. Because UAA is home to so many commuter students, there are no Greek houses on campus, which makes it a little difficult for students involved to meet. She says they make it work and have been gaining traction over the last couple of years and that there may be another fraternity joining the group once they go through the approval process.

"We have about 75 students involved in Greek Life," says Jess. "They are starting to get out there more, they did a 'Greek Week' where they held a blood drive on campus, in addition to various other events throughout the week."

Jess admits, she's pretty busy most of the time, but loves her job and being the "social butterfly" as one professor described her. She enjoys the variety of working with so many different groups on campus, from the diversity in the students to the individual departments, from geology to athletics, she has her hands in it all.

"I love the development component, I feel all encompassing," says Jess. "You see students over a span of years, see them grow and do amazing things. I have the ability to interact with students from all different backgrounds. I'm like a proud little parent."

Jess says she is happy to be grounded and setting her roots in Alaska, she loves living here and her job at UAA, but the itch to travel and live abroad is still in her. She thinks at some point her wanderlust and sense of adventure will take over, moving her onward. Whether that's pursuing a doctorate degree in leadership or finally taking the leap to live abroad, she doesn't know yet. But for now, she's happy to explore her own big backyard and looks forward to many more Alaska adventures to come.