Jennifer Long Chung ’96

When Jennifer Long Chung ’96 embarked on her post-GA journey, she had no idea how widely her path would wander. “I had always been intrigued  by so many different areas, so I never wanted to limit myself to just one thing. It’s really that attitude that has shaped all of the different pieces of my life.”

 

At the start of college, Jennifer thought she had her future all planned out as a civil engineering major. “But I could tell right away that engineering wasn’t enough for me; there was something I was missing out on,” she says. “So I became a double major in English, as well.” Crediting Kathy Kenny for being a big influence in that addition, Jennifer says it led to some awesome—and more balanced—days. “I would spend my mornings playing around with fluid dynamics and my evenings with British literature and Hitchcock movies!”

 

Jennifer says that the Gilmour community has played an impactful role throughout her life, not just in her academic decision-making. “I had an internship in project management with Panzica construction that I got partially because of my Gilmour connections,” she says.  “And so many of my management skills have their roots  in my experiences with Mr. McCamley and Mrs. Janis. Socratic Seminars and Lincoln-Douglas debates gave me a great foundation for problem solving, for bringing people together, and for finding solutions before challenges even happen.”

 

But it wasn’t just the faculty and staff that helped shape Jennifer.  “My peers were so invested in each other and in our futures.  We’re still connected through social media, and my daughter’s godparents are my classmates from Gilmour. Those kinds of friendships are what made those years at Gilmour so meaningful, and, more than that, the Gilmour experience isn’t just four years; it’s forever.”

 

After working in technology at Accenture, Jennifer has spent the last decade as the Director of IT Service Operations at Vitamix, though she says that’s only a part of her full career. “I have five kids, so I also say I’m a professional Uber driver and master scheduler. And, because I spend all that time attending my kids’ events, I decided to take up photography, too.” Jennifer says she is “a ‘yes’ person, not a ‘no’ person.”

 

“I just follow the advice of Matthew Kelly, who said ‘the purpose of life is to become the best version of yourself,’” she says. “I look at something I’m doing and I ask: how can I become the best at that?”

 

Jennifer says that her path in life hasn’t always been the most direct, but that is the point. “Change is certain, and at some times, I would have seen parts of my life as failure, when really those moments are just a kind of redirection.” When she has doubts about where the path may lead, Jennifer says she tells herself to follow a very simple rule:

“Just do the next right thing.” So far, those words have never led her astray.