Annah

“Start-up weekend, start-up weekend” … I can still see Jen standing in front of a room of 83 students getting them to chant “start-up… weekend” back and forth. We were getting my 4th and 5th grade students ready for 2 days of participating in their very own shark tank style design process. Over those two days Jen helped inspire innovation amongst 9-11 year olds and helped them learn the real world principles of entrepreneurship. Jen had such joy all over her face teaching these students how to come up with their own unique ideas. She taught them about the value of failure and group work, dreaming big, and believing in your ideas. When those kids were chanting start-up weekend they had no idea what they were even getting ready to do. But Jen was able to evoke such enthusiasm amongst them because of her energy. It was her energy and enthusiasm for teaching about entrepreneurship that would carry those 83 students through those two days of the design process.

 In order to make this two day event work she put together a group of local volunteers who were Raleigh entrepreneurs and young business leaders. They came in to help with the design process and lead student groups along the way. Leveraging this community was easy for her to do because she was so well connected in the area & people knew if Jen believed in it, then it was gonna be cool.

Jen had a passion for life, she enjoyed learning about people and inspiring others. She used her time sharing things she loved with people know matter where they came from or how young/old they were. She was curious, a good listener, friendly, adventurous, and kind.

Jen was a CHANGE MAKER.

There wasn’t a place in the world Jen would go and not already have a connection there. She was good at staying in touch, following up with people, and helping people see the best in themselves & the world around them.

In her short time, Jen co-managed the @Techstars Boston accelerator program. Her team’s work was featured in Business Insider, Forbes, and Techcrunch. She also worked at @Techstars Startup Programs where she led 250+ startup programs for inspiration stage entrepreneurs in the US & Canada. Jen was the operations manager @Trestles, a service design consultancy & @UnifiedImaging (acq. Rev360). Founding member @Dreamers//Doers, a private collective for extraordinary entrepreneurial women. At the forefront of building communities @World Economic Forum Global Shapers, a network of youth driving dialogue, action, and change. Other Notable Accolades: Climate Reality Corps Leader (2019), 1 of 50 Selected Global Shapers for Summer Davos (2018), Facebook’s F8 Hackathon Grand Prize Winner (2018), Appointed Curator for the World Economic Forum Global Shapers (2016), StartingBloc Innovation Fellow (2014).

Beyond that work she was asked to speak at Harvard, to be a presenter in an all-expense paid trip in South Korea and speak at the Asian Leadership Conference to minority entrepreneurs.  And a month after she passed was set to be a presenter at the World Economic Forum Conference in Switzerland. Whatever the room, and wherever conversations were happening about making the world a better place Jen was in it and often leading it. Jen created spaces for those that didn’t have a voice and need someone to believe in their ideas. She cared deeply about people, the natural world, women in entrepreneurship, fair opportunities, innovation, and living simply.

But all of that is still hardly what made her so special. It’s how she taught all of us to slow down, how to look for what’s important, about giving something to the next generation, caring for our earth, standing still long enough to feel the breeze or do a cartwheel on the beach. Getting dessert even though you were full and eating vegetables because they are good for you. Jen is in everything; strawberry jam, hula hoops, the waves crashing, a polar plunge, and the hawk perched up on the light post outside of Harris Teeter. She is Goodberries and bicycles. Jen is the airplane and the curtails in the sky. Jen is in all of these things because she lived fiercely and she taught you to look for goodness everywhere she was. She taught us to see things no matter how small.

The thing that made startup weekend so unique was that everyone there had to participate in a team. Each offering their unique set of skills to create the final product. To rally around when things got discouraging and to ultimately make things better by working together. Jen was a team player and a believer in the common good. Being part of a team is so important when you’re fighting mental illness. You need a strong network of people that stand around you & support you. That is why organizations like this are so important. We need people cheering for all the “Jens” out there. There is a quote that says if you wanna go fast, go alone but if you want to go far go together. Jen went fast, she was trying to be there for everyone else but ended up feeling so alone, she didn’t have enough people fully on her side that understood all she was carrying. Too often she was trying to make everything better for everyone else but she carried so much weight by herself. An empath to a fault. A seeker of beauty to a detriment. But it wasn’t simply an aloneness that took Jen from us too soon. It was the mental illness she fought that led her view of life to become skewed. She was no longer able to see the light she brought forward… instead started having the overwhelming feeling that maybe the world would be better without her in it. Her community did not realize the depth of what she was carrying until it was too late. This is why organizations like these are so important to help raise awareness for the TEAM around those who suffer with mental illness- people need information, awareness, tools, and resources to become the teammates those with mental illness need to keep fighting, when things get discouraging those suffering from mental illness need to imagine a better future where they are still here.

The truth is most people don’t really want to die or believe the world would be better without them. They just don’t know how to keep living the life they currently have.

Jen was a change maker but sometimes when you fight so hard for others’ lives to be better you need people who will turn around and do the same for you.

So while we can’t bring our beautiful Jen, a daughter, sister, granddaughter, aunt, niece, or friend back. We can fight for every other Jen. We can impact change by being the team of people others need, knowing how to look for the signals and not take any of them lightly.

We must pick up the torch and become change makers ourselves and we do that by investing our time/energy in the education of self and others. By raising money for organizations that are doing the work.

So what do we want the world to know about Jen…. Well I guess it’s just this that she really did change the world. When she died so many people came forward to share personal stories about how she impacted their lives. Including people who had only seen her speak publicly once, people that met her once. She had that aura about her. And we want people to know that she changed our lives. In life and in loss of Jen she changed the make up of how we live, how we wake up each day with the complex duality of grief and hope for a better tomorrow. Jen was a light and she always will be to us and to those that knew her. She is also a humbling reminder of the struggle that the best of us face behind closed doors.

Finally, we want people to know that might be fighting mental illness themselves, that their list of accolades, life experiences, or traits all don’t need this list described here for their life to matter. Every person offers something unique to this team & we as humans are all part of it. Jen was part of it and she still is because we choose to continue to tell her story, celebrate her legacy, and remember her life as a change maker.

To learn more about Jen’s life, check out @heyjenitsme on instagram where Annah, Jen’s sister shares about Jen’s life, legacy, and her own journey of life after loss by suicide through writing letters to Jen, entitled “Hey Jen, It’s Me”.

Finally, if you feel compelled please join Jen’s family, Annah, Phil, and Mitzie in the Walk for Hope each October. You can join our team, heyjenitsme led by Team Captain, Mitzie Riedel. Together we can break the stigma.

Will You Join Us?

Walk for treatment. Walk for life. Walk for Hope.