The Oredigger caught up with Mazzotta to learn a little more about one of Mines’ newest employees. From the time she was young to the middle of her high school career Jen Mazzotta lived in connecticut. Then, she moved to Aurora, Colorado and graduated from Gateway High School. While she was in High School, one of her teachers suggested that she look at western state college where she majored in organizational communication and business and English. It was there that she realized she could pretty much major in student activities for the rest of her life. She found student activities amazing and so from there she went to Washington state university and was paid to get her masters degree. She worked in Residential Life for two years and then in Student Activities for two years. After that she moved on to Stockton, California and loved it. It was great being only 90 minutes away from San Francisco and 2 hours from Yosemite National Park. She worked at the University of the Pacific and there she met her husband Chris and they now have a two and a half year old named Cooper.
Coming to Colorado was a wonderful opportunity because all her of her family is here and Colorado is a great state!
As the new director of student activities she hangs out with all the great people in the student activities office, meaning she works with the two associate directors here at mines who oversee greek life, clubs and organizations, MAC. She directly gets to work with the student government and orientation, which is a lot of fun for her.
What she likes most about a small campus is that she gets to be a generalist, which means she is involved with a lot of different responsibilities. Usually small campuses need that because they are generally understaffed and need help in a lot of different ways, and that is what she likes. Even though she has only been here for about four weeks she has a lot of plans. She is focused on making sure we have a good student orientation program for both summer and new student orientation. She is looking at revamping orientation so our new students will have a slightly different experience than everybody else. She wants to implement more of the student experience, so each student knows what it is like to live the Mines experience. The job in student activities is to liven up student’s lives. Jen’s big goal is to make sure that everyone knows they are here, what they can bring, and how to get involved and get the most out of each students experience. The craziest thing she has ever done in this position, was at her last university during their WAM type event, she was the one who brought that program to campus, they covered an entire room with bubble wrap and the students got to jump around in it.
There were both small and large bubbles so you got both experiences. It was on the walls, floors, little pieces you could play with. She has a completely open door policy and their working on a way for students not to have to come to her directly so they can definitely hit her up on the Internet. She is good at email and her email address is mazzotta@mines.edu and she wishes to hear from students!
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