Mississippi Alpha Jessica Bourgeois is a sophomore with a servant leader heart ready to affect positive change. She came to the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in hopes of getting involved, meeting people, and making the most of every moment she has.

Jessica grew up influenced by her mother and grandmother, both teachers, and always knew she too wanted to become a teacher. She is currently studying elementary education focused on an administration credentials. She loves working with kids and this past summer, she had the opportunity to be on the counselor staff at Camp Abbey Retreat Center in Covington, Louisiana.

For one month, she was lovingly referred to as “Bean” (another game played at camp was to guess your counselor’s real name). Each week, a new round of 200 girls between the ages of 8-14 would come to the overnight camp; Jessica would be responsible for 20 of them. She led them in various activities rotations – swimming, hiking, arts & crafts, boating – as well as religious-based activities like Bible study. They would end their days with evening swim or camp Olympics to celebrate more time of fellowship with the other campers. This time mentoring campers validated what Jessica wants to do with her life.

In the fall, Jessica saw one of her campers, Bailey, at a USM football game yelling out, “Bean! Bean!” As fun as it was for Jessica to see her camper outside of the context of Camp Abbey, it was probably even more fun to have Bailey see “Bean” as a member of the Homecoming Court. That’s right, Jessica is beloved member of the Golden Eagle community.

Jessica is a member for the Cabinet in Student Government Association and helped plan the campus Christmas celebration this past year. She helps in the Office of Admissions to give tours to prospective students, and she is an Honors College ambassador serving as a mentor to other students in the college. For Pi Phi, Jessica was the Panhellenic Delegate and Fundraising Chair before becoming Vice President of Philanthropy this year. She has danced at Danceathon and read at Champions Are Readers. This upcoming year, she is supporting the entire Panhellenic community by serving as a Gamma Rho Chi (recruitment counselor).

As we finished up our time together, Jessica called out to a group of Pi Phi sisters over on the couch, “what’s my motto?” They replied: “Yes, I will do it.” “Yea, sure.” “Yup. Of course!” With resounding confidence, her sisters know that Jessica will be there no matter what. I think it’s because her true motto is “leave it better than you found it” and Jessica is doing all she can do leave USM the best it can be.