1. I am writing in strong support of Jenny M. Gao who I have worked with in a professional capacity in the Swarthmore
College Office of Admissions. I can unequivocally state that Jenny is one of the most engaged, curious, open,
charismatic, and rigorously thoughtful students I’ve met at Swarthmore (and, for what it’s worth, this is a pretty impressive
place full of impressive people - she shines even in our shiny community).
Jenny is one of our student workers in the admissions office, entrusted with several different roles and responsibilities.
She is a General Information Session Presenter (GISP), one of the most trusted student roles in our office. GISPS
undergo a rigorous selection process in order to be considered for employment. They are selected for their ability to
articulate Swarthmore’s values, as well as for their professionalism, their presentation skills, their ability to think on their
feet, their reliability, and their ability to think at macro and micro levels while engaging with an audience. They need to be
able to work alongside an admissions officer to present Swarthmore to prospective students in an effective manner.
In her role as a GISP and mine as an admissions officer, Jenny and I have shared the stage several times entertaining
and informing groups of whip-smart/eager/suspicious/bored/idealistic and/or high-strung high schoolers and their parents.
Jenny is a natural – regardless of the audience’s disposition. She has a sophisticated yet joyful presentation style that
lands remarkably well with our visitors. Parents see her as articulate and mature, while students connect with her
charisma and spirited personality. I often find myself willingly turning the floor over to Jenny during our shared
presentations to let her run the show – she’s that good!
One of the highlights for me during information sessions is to throw curve balls at our GISPs – questions that the students
are not prepared for and that I don’t know how they’ll respond to. It’s a risky game, but it’s worth it to let our students
authentically represent their experiences here to our visitors. I implicitly trust Jenny with these curveball questions.
She’s an exceptionally quick and robust thinker, she’s adaptable and able to run with my out-of-blue questions, and she
does it in front of an audience in an impressively engaging way. While her natural working style is, I think, to be highly
prepared and ready to get to work, she also has an ease and a flexibility that any supervisor would value.
Jenny was also selected to be a member of the Student Admissions Advisory Committee – a very small cohort of current
students who meet monthly with our dean of admissions. In these meetings, she has a chance to see how the
admissions process functions, to ask questions (and she asks very good questions, rooted in her genuine interest in how
organizations do their work and live up to their missions), and to help our office stay current with the student
I have also gotten to know Jenny informally as she routinely stops by my office to chat. She has a confidence and
friendliness that allows her to do this, a strong emotional and social intelligence. She sought out my advice as she was
selecting her classes for this semester, because she genuinely cares about pooling information and using resources to
make sound judgments. She has had sit-down conversations with several of my colleagues in the office, too, just to learn
more about their paths, and their roles – her natural curiosity and social ease make this a natural interaction for her.
I am thrilled to give Jenny my strongest recommendation. Any organization would be happy to have an employee of such
charisma, thoughtfulness, curiosity, and reliability. You have her very full and impressive resume in front of you. Her
enthusiasm for the arts, civic engagement and policy, project management, and actively contributing to dynamic
communities should be extraordinarily evident. She is an engaging person, a rigorous thinker, a reliable employee, and a
genuine pleasure to supervise and work with.
If you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact me at 610-328-8303 or jduck1@swarthmore.edu
Sincerely,
J.T. Duck
Director of Admissions