Name: Jessica Campbell
Year: 2018
Major(s): Linguistics, Hispanic Studies minor
Hometown: Dunn Loring, Virginia (so basically Tysons)
Activities on campus:
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The William and Mary Accidentals (tour manager)
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The William and Mary Choir (fundraising chair)
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Tribe Tutor
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Sociolinguistics research assistant
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Phonology research assistant
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Linguistics Club
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Georgetown University Round Table (linguistics conference) Interest Group
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Computational & Experimental Linguistics Lab research group
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Honors Thesis in linguistics and Spanish
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William and Mary Hillel
Describe yourself in three words:
Extraverted, candid, cluttered
Go-to Starbucks order:
Unsweetened iced passion tea
What do you like to do in your free time?
Run and weight train, hang out with friends, read Entertainment Weekly and Reductress articles, listen to old Sara Bareilles albums or musical theatre soundtracks (and of course sing along), watch Crazy Ex Girlfriend, chill at Wawa until right before it gets weird, go through my Ipsy packages and get excited trying everything on and then forget about it until the next one comes and the process begins again, and find really inexpensive clothes and buy too many of them
What is your favorite TV series?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars
What is something on your bucket list?
Go out of the country (I’m doing that this summer!)
What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
Even though I’m pretty aggressively type-A, I never delete emails and just leave junk emails unread. I currently have 18,291 unread emails on my phone. I really should go through them at some point.
What’s the best part about being involved in music at William & Mary?
Definitely the friends. Every a cappella group, or singing group, for that matter, supports one another, and on any given weekend you can find us all hanging out together at different groups’ houses. I’m not in Greek life, and when I came to William and Mary I was worried I might miss out on social events because of that, but instead I found that my involvement in music allowed me to make countless friends who share my interests. My best friends are in The Accidentals with me, and my entire dorm suite is in a cappella. I’ll never get tired of the bonfires, movie nights, date parties, or just nights in with my favorite people.
What is your favorite part about going to William & Mary?
My favorite part of William and Mary is the support of the community. Everyone, from the Sadler staff to the instructors at the rec to the people in my dorm who I bump into on the way to the kitchen, is rooting for everyone else to succeed. And the size of the school means that anywhere I go, I’ll see someone I know, or someone I kind of know, or someone who knows someone I know. Whenever I’m stressed, I just have to go to a public place on campus and someone will be there with a hug and encouragement. This community also lets professors and students have a close relationship that goes beyond just lecturing and grading. At William and Mary, I’ve been able to do research and/or collaborate outside of class with at least four different professors, who all take time out of their own work to guide me. One of my honors thesis advising professors has never even had me in a class. I just emailed him and introduced myself, and he has been helping me ever since!
What is one piece of advice you would give to freshmen?
Find a couple of key communities right when you get to campus, but don’t be afraid to let those change as you decide what you want to prioritize. Change is good; know that what you are focusing on now might be completely different from what you’ll focus on later. Take that as an opportunity to explore. Even if something isn’t your priority, try it out. Go see a Syndicate show, or participate in HOPE program, or go to an AMP event on a weeknight . Even if you never do it again, it’ll show you just how diverse this campus is, and expose you to more perspectives and personalities than you even knew existed.
If you were president of the college for a day, what would you do?
Well, first, I would make reading days more than just LITERALLY THE WEEKEND so we can have some rest after Blowout. I would use my presidential powers to keep Banner from crashing during class selection. I’d tear down Morton with my own personal wrecking ball and have its classes meet outside when it’s nice out (and I guess somewhere else when it’s not but I haven’t thought that part through yet). I would put Qdoba back in Marketplace and use my connections to get Mooyah back in Tribe Square. Oh, and I’d convince Wawa to take Flex. Note that I’m assuming that the role of president comes with some power that goes beyond this campus…