Jasmine Tucker Wins Campus Partner Award
School of Education and Social Policy staff member Jasmine Tucker was named an Outstanding Campus Partner from Northwestern University's Office of Student Affairs for supporting colleagues, uplifting students, and facilitating important conversations around social justice.
Tucker, program coordinator in SESP’s Student Affairs Office, was a key leader in two weekend-long programs in 2019: the Justice and Allyship Retreat, the Posse Plus Retreat. She also chaperoned the For Members Only (FMO) Spring Break Trip and volunteered on the planning committee for The Journey of Our Years, or The JOY, which recognizes and celebrates Northwestern’s Black graduates.
“In addition to bringing a wealth of knowledge and insight to the trips, she adds light and energy to any group she joins,” one of her nominators wrote. “But she can also be a necessary force.”
On the spring break trip, when students began to complain or tire of the itinerary, “Jasmine reminded them about the privilege afforded to them and the significance of their time in Atlanta,” her nominator wrote. When the group visited the Herndon Home Museum, home of Alonzo Franklin Herndon, Atlanta’s first Black millionaire, Tucker offered supplemental information about the significance of the Herndon family. “She was pivotal.”
Tucker is also a member of Northwestern’s Campus Coalition on Sexual Violence and participated in Northwestern’s Changemakers program. She is one of many first-generation college students who have supported Student Enrichment Services’ initiatives on community-building for the first-generation community, including First Gen Friday, a social media campaign that celebrates first-gen identity.
Born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio (which explains her unfortunate allegiance to Big Ten rival, Ohio State), Tucker is a proud alumna of Howard University, a Historically Black College. During the For Members Only spring break trip, she helped arrange and moderate a meeting between students at Northwestern and HBCUs Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.
Prior to coming to SESP, Tucker received her master’s degree in Cultural and Educational Policy at Loyola University. She also worked as a legal secretary for Robin Potter & Associates, a firm that specialized in employee labor rights.
“Jasmine is one of those people who silently roots for you and the work you do. She goes hard for her students without expecting much in return,” her nominator wrote.
Tucker took time out of her busy schedule to answer some of our questions:
Q: You sing, dance, and have helped Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald when he needed a guest coach. What are your academic interests?
A: African American Studies, Education, and American Studies. My interests are around Black Education during the Reconstruction area, Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, the evolution of Black soul music, and the intersection between Race, Sports, Culture, and Politics.
Q: If you had to write a dissertation today, what would the focus be?
A: The significance of geographic politics in the O.J. Simpson case. The Rodney King riots, murder of Latasha Harlin, and tension between the African American and Korean community all were factors that shaped the view of police involvement during the case. It sounds far-fetched, but I'm fascinated by the complexities of the trial of the century.
Q: Best decision of your (young) life?
A: Attending the illustrious Howard University. I truly learned what being Black from a diasporic perspective meant. I made friends from all over the country that I would've never been exposed to had I gone to Ohio State. Growing up in Atlanta, we were primed as children to go to either Morehouse, Spelman, or Clark Atlanta, so I knew an HBCUs would be my calling.
Q: What were your favorite classes?
A: Afro-American Studies and Sociology! I grew up in spaces where being Black and smart wasn’t associated with Blackness and just wasn't cool...but going to class every day with like-minded individuals, where intelligence was celebrated and embraced, was life changing. My favorites classes included Black Women in America, Black Aesthetics, African American Literature to 1940, and Education in Black America.
Q: Did you have a favorite assignment?
A: I will always cherish that I completed an independent study on Charlotte Forten and Anna Julia Cooper's teaching methodologies for Black children during the Reconstruction era with primary resources at the Moorland Spingarn Research Center (the largest archive on the Black diaspora in the world).
Q: What did Howard teach you?
A: How to survive in a big East Coast city, how to hustle for internships and jobs, and how to be assertive to get what we want. Similar to Northwestern, Howard was a school where the average student was on an executive board, held down an internship and worked a part-time job in the city while taking four to six classes a semester.
Q: Any other important lessons that have helped you so far?
A: Everything at Howard, whether it was grades, financial aid, housing, registration, food, transportation was earned and not given. We didn't have the infrastructure that Northwestern has and definitely not the holistic support. I learned that while there will be a few people in your corner, anything I wanted I would have to get for myself. Howard taught me that in the real world, you have to fight for your place in society and work hard in order to maintain it because as a Black, cis-gender, and first-generation college graduate, nothing will be handed to you.
Q: Favorite thing about SESP, other than the communications team?
A: The Student Affairs Office (SAO)! The amount of memories with the students are countless. I honestly can say that working with SESP students brings so much joy! No one day is the same and that's what makes it fun! Whether it's debating on the relevance of New Girl, eating lunch, or making cards at a Leadership and Programming board event, every day is a bright day in the SAO.