Jennifer Koch
Year: Senior
Hometown: Hanover County, Va.
Major: Marketing with a minor in painting and fashion merchandising
Career goal: “To do something I love where I can be creative.”
A calling to Australia
“I had the initial idea to study abroad probably around my sophomore year of college … I wanted to go to an English-speaking country but England didn’t seem far enough and culturally different enough.
“I put myself out there and it was such a great, great thing.”
“I went to the Education Abroad student fair in the fall and by that time, I had sort of thought that Australia was probably where I wanted to go. I knew that I wanted an urban campus at a big school where there’s a lot to do … The University of Sydney was just calling my name. It’s beautiful. It has all kinds of sports clubs and lots of marketing classes I could take. I’ll be there July through November. I want to do everything – I want to see it all and meet as many people and join as many sports clubs as possible.
“It’s good because I’ll be back at VCU in the spring – my favorite time of year for lots of reasons: It’s basketball season, people go out more, everyone’s more upbeat, my GPA’s higher.
“But now it’s starting to feel like ‘wow, I’m not going to be here next semester.’ All my friends are talking about signing up for classes and I don’t have any classes to sign up for. It’s starting to get real. I mean, it seems so soon. I’m excited. My roommate keeps telling me ‘you need to start packing now – you have so much stuff!’”
Finding a purpose
“I was having a really hard time when I first came to VCU and my mom told me to try a Pilates class because I had done that in high school and enjoyed it. By the next day, I found the classes at the Siegel Center and started taking them and that got me going … exercise became a huge part of my life in college. In my English 200 class, I’m writing a paper on exercising for mental health. If I don’t exercise for two days, I feel down and depressed. My energy’s different.
“Then I became an orientation leader. Talk about opening doors. This was my turning point. I had a purpose.
“I put myself out there and it was such a great, great thing.”
