From a young age, Jen Hicks knew that one day she wanted a career helping others – well, maybe not right away.
“If you asked me when I was a child, I would say I wanted to be a paleontologist,” she laughs. “But I found, over the years, that I enjoyed being a teacher’s helper and supporting classmates.” Her teachers regularly chose her as a peer mentor; when Jen asked her 6th grade teacher if there was anything she could do to help, she ended up sitting with her teacher to help grade papers.
Those early experiences led her to LaSalle University, where she studied elementary and special education. Jen found her professional home at Y.A.L.E. School, where she spent 25 years working and learning new skills at several campuses in a variety of roles before stepping into her current position as S9 Coordinator, a role she has held for the past two years. Jen works with Y.A.L.E. students ages 18-21, connecting them with valuable, hands-on job experiences and forging partnerships to provide new work-based learning opportunities – such as the new partnership between Y.A.L.E. Standard 9 and Lincoln Tech.
As her students gain new skills and work experiences, Jen is there with a guiding hand and a proud smile.
“I love seeing our students progress and how much they grow and thrive. We’re helping them explore things that they didn’t know they could do,” she says. “I was just recently in a summary of performance exit meeting, and the district representative and the parents were all crying – happy tears! – because they didn’t think their kid would accomplish what they did in their time with us at Y.A.L.E.
“Seeing moments like that, when students become successful independent adults, is the thing I love most about my work,” Jen says.
That passion for creating successful outcomes spills over into every aspect of Jen’s personality – and into her hobbies too. She likes to spend her time outside of work volunteering with an organization called Bailey’s Bridge to Home Rescue and Recovery, a nonprofit that works to reunite lost pets with their owners through advanced tracking and humane trapping methods. Regularly, Jen will find herself combing a community for tips, setting a trap, or waiting for hours in her car for a glimpse of a lost dog – all in the name of successfully bringing the pup home safely to their family.
Y.A.L.E. students love hearing about Jen’s tracking adventures and the success after hard work – like the time last winter when Jen spent 10 weeks tracking a large Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix across South Jersey. Jen and her friend Kathleen Tortu-Bowles, the organizer behind Bailey’s Bridge, tracked the massive dog from Riverside to Delran, through the Rancocas Nature Preserve, and on as far as Hammonton and Chesilhurst. In total, the dog covered 150 miles in the freezing winter, with sightings reported by the side of 295 and next to train tracks. Jen and Kathleen finally caught the dog outside a home at 4 a.m. – while the temperature outside was -1 degree.
“My kids know that Ms. Hicks is a crazy animal person,” Jen laughs. “They get so invested in my volunteer work, always asking me for updates.”
Jen’s stories of dramatic rescues delight her students and are now engaging young readers everywhere. Jen and Kathleen have co-authored a children’s book story about one of their rescues, called “Hamlin’s Bridge to Home.” Jen knows her students are inspired by these stories of perseverance and compassion for animals.
“Once you are invested in a rescue, you’re all in,” she says. “I just want to do my little part to help these dogs and these families.”
Whether Jen is in the classroom supporting student growth or out in the cold to bring a furry friend back home to its family, her work and passions are rooted in patience, persistence, and compassion – qualities that have guided her from those early days of wanting to help others into the educator she is today.