Percy Davis

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful,” Albert Schweitzer. This is a quote that Jennifer Melissa Felps took with her through this journey we call life.

Jennifer was born in the “Windy City”, better known as Chicago, Illinois.

Coming from the third most populated city in the U.S. she moved to a much smaller town by the name of Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Throughout her childhood Jennifer participated in many different extra-curricular activities. She also traveled a lot since her mother was from Ecuador. They traveled every other year to Ecuador to visit family and went various places around the U.S. on family vacations every year.

“I really had a passion to learn more about my culture, which is Ecuadorian,” Jennifer said.

After graduating from Mountain Home High School in 2005, she pursued her BA at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She graduated with a degree in Communications and a minor in Latin American studies.

When looking for a graduate program, Jennifer was looking for something that specifically centered on International/Intercultural communication.

“I was very lucky to find this program at the University of Denver in Colorado. It was an exact mix of what I wanted to pursue and the exact type of environment,” Jennifer added.

In 2012 Jennifer Melissa Felps received her Master’s degree in International and Intercultural Public Relations.

While in Denver, Jennifer was part of a Distance Learning Program, a collaborative effort with the University of Denver, the Cable Center in Denver, C-Span studios in Washington DC, George Mason University, and Purdue University.

Jennifer was the graduate assistant for the University of Denver’s class, a distance learning class that focused on the mid-term elections and the makeup of the Congress at the time.

Students would get the opportunity to interact with the guests that Steve Scully had on his show in Washington DC. Scully is a senior executive producer and political editor of C-Span. Steve was the director of the class and Jennifer was his graduate assistant.

Scully would have many different guests on his show weekly, including speech writers for different presidents and also members of the media such as writers for Politico, and former CBS Evening News anchor , Dan Rather.

Jennifer was in charge of the class and her duties were to make sure that the communication was effective between the DC representatives and her students in the class. She did this for one full academic year.

“It was real cool,” Jennifer said astoundingly.

Before landing the position she holds today, Jennifer worked for the Cable Center in Denver, the Open Media Foundation, and Texarkana College.

She is currently employed at Texas A&M Texarkana with the job title of Global Recruitment Specialist.

Her position deals with marketing and recruitment for international studies.

Over time Jennifer has developed an intelligent global perspective and is an advocate of higher education. Her sincerity helps potential students feel connected to the university.

“I would say I am a pro when it comes to letting people know what to expect in college, how to get into college, how to do well in college, and how to look for the job after you graduate college.”

When asked what it takes to become a good global recruitment specialist this is what Jennifer had to say: “You must have the understanding and appreciation of the importance of intercultural/international relations, not only in a university setting but also in an everyday setting. You will also need excellent communication skills and a thorough knowledge of the university’s admission procedures.”

Jennifer thinks the key to recruiting students is trying to present a topic that the students can relate to their personal lives. She noted that communication is probably the number one aspect to becoming a recruitment specialist.

Jennifer is an extremely outgoing person and the type of person that everyone in the building would like to be around. “What I think makes me stand out from other recruitment specialist is my sincere an enthusiastic passion for higher education,” Jennifer said. “It is important that growing universities internationalize their student population in order to maintain a strong position in our globalized world and I aid in that effort.”