Roadmaps Part 3: Professor Jennifer Phillippe

By James Trent

On March 28, 2018

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Prof. Jennifer Phillippe
Instructor in Geology and Physical Sciences

Professor Jennifer Phillippe only recently decided to become a college geology professor, and entering geology was not her plan originally either.

From Greencastle, Indiana, a small town in west-central Indiana, Professor Jennifer Phillippe got her undergraduate degree in geology at Greencastle’s DePauw University. When Phillippe first entered college, however, she wanted to be have a journalism major. Phillippe remembers, “My original plan had everything worked out, as my 18-year-old self would’ve wanted, and I would have gone to North Western, studied journalism, and I would have become a newspaper writer.”

She was quickly turned away from journalism after her first semester working on her college newspaper, “The Boulder.” “I hated it,” Phillippe says. “I did not like the style of newspaper writing where you use simpler sentences, and you’re trying to get that broader base. I had lots of trouble with my vocabulary, using words and being told to use a simpler word… So I immediately found out that I did not want to be a newspaper writer after my first experience doing it, and so I ended up with sort of a typical, freshman schedule of math, history, science and that first science class I took was a geology class, and that’s how I became a geologist.”

“I love writing,” Phillipe continued. “I also have a degree in English, so I did complete an English degree while I was at DePauw as well. That’s really the part that I enjoyed most when I was in consulting and as a geologist is the writing. I like writing, I like editing, and I like to think I’m pretty good at it too.”

Phillippe spent 13 years as an environmental consultant, working on gas station sites and old industrial sites to help mitigate their environment impact. But soon enough, she was unhappy with that line of work as well. “Like most forms of consulting, there’s a big emphasis on billing. More billings, more clients, more, more, more, more. So I eventually reached the point that I was burnt out, and I looked to return to academia and teach geology. So, on a Friday afternoon when I probably should have been working, instead I was on the internet and I applied for the job at Concord.”

To take the job at Concord, however, Phillippe had to move her entire family, including three children, from Indianapolis to Athens. Her family did not immediately approve, either.

“[They] thought I was insane,” Phillippe says. “I moved a large family of five from the big city in Indiana to a small town in West Virginia. I took a pay cut of…significant value, to go from environmental consulting to teaching, and did not know a soul in West Virginia when we moved. But, two years later we own a house here and I intend on staying at Concord for the foreseeable future.”

Prof. Phillippe was no stranger to financial struggle, however. One issue that had presented itself when she was first applying to undergraduate schools was funding, derailing her initial plans to go to North Western. “I was accepted into their journalism school and everything, but I didn’t receive a sufficient amount of financial aid. At that time to go to North Western was around $26,000 a year. I can’t even imagine what it would be now.”

Getting used to small town living has also presented itself with some growing pains. “The metro area of Indianapolis has a larger population than the entire state of West Virginia,” Phillippe says. “What I miss the most are the conveniences of city life. When we lived in Indianapolis I had my groceries delivered… And on Amazon we could get same day shipping, or shipping within three or four hours depending on what the product was.”

Despite all the issues, however, Prof. Phillippe is happy to have moved to West Virginia and encourages students to make the decisions they think would benefit them, despite the odds. “Don’t be afraid to make the bold choice,” she said. “The decision to walk away from a career field, the state where all of your family live. Just because it’s the bold or unconventional choice, or it seems crazy from the outside, if you really think it’s the best choice then you should just do it. Be fearless in your choice making.”