As academic skills counselor in the ASK office, it is Pam Jennings’ job to assist students in achieving academic success at Keuka, whether through one-on-one meetings or classroom presentations on such subjects at time management, note taking, effective reading, and APA/MLA systems of documentation.

Jennings discussed the importance of one-on-one conferences when, along with director of ASK Carole Lillis and Assistant Director of ASK Jennifer Robinson, she presented at the 20^th Annual Teaching Academic Survival Skills Conference in March.

And Jennings doesn’t just talk the talk. She is someone who pushes herself—academically as well as physically.

A Phi Beta Kappa (liberal arts and sciences honor society) and Summa Cum Laude graduate of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Jennings earned an M.A. in literature from Syracuse University. She pursued her degrees as a non-traditional student and mother of two.

“I remember bringing my homework in the bathroom with me while my daughters were taking baths,” said Jennings, whose daughters are now grown.

Over the summer and at the age of 55, Jennings participated in the mini-Mussel sprint triathlon at Seneca Lake State Park in Geneva. The mini-Mussel consisted of 750 meters of swimming, 16 miles of biking, and three miles of running. She finished in a time of 2:16:28. It was the first triathlon for Jennings, who aspires to improve her mini-Mussel time next year. Ultimately, she’d like to complete the more demanding Musselman Half-Iron Triathlon (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run).

“It was practice for me,” said Jennings, who was one of a group of seven women ages 38-70 who decided to participate in the triathlon. “I wasn’t competing in my mind, but improving for next year’s mini-Mussel.”

Jennings, who works out daily, began training with the six others for the mini-Mussel in January in the pool at the Geneva YMCA with Neil Brophy, a nationally ranked swimmer. They also practiced on a buoyed course at Kershaw Park on Canandaigua Lake.

Just one week after the July triathlon, she participated in a two-mile swim (“with three-foot waves,” according to Jennings) across Seneca Lake with the same women. In August, they biked around Keuka Lake.  

“We like to pick a different one of the Finger Lakes each year,” said Jennings. “Last year, we went 85 miles around Seneca Lake.”

In addition to her full-time duties in the ASK office, Jennings is an instructor of English and teaches College English I (ENG 110) and II (ENG 112) as well as ENG 100: Fundamentals of College Reading and Writing and FYE 101: Experiential Learning.

“She is enormously popular with the students and highly regarded by all of us in ASK and her colleagues in the humanities division,” said Director of ASK Carole Lillis. “She is a wonderful person, and a real asset to Keuka.”

“I just love the students,” said Jennings. “I always look forward to meeting new students each semester. And I’ll often have the same students back-to-back in ENG 110 and 112. I get to know them; they’ll come by my office to talk. I get invited to their weddings after they graduate.”

Junior Courtney Lincoln refers to Jennings as her “mother at school.”

“She is always there with a warm welcome and an open door, whether it is to listen to problems, help with my classes or just take time to talk about anything,” said the marketing major, who had Jennings for ENG 100. “And she never missed an article in the newspaper with me in it.”

And there were many. Lincoln, a basketball standout, was named MVP of the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) as well as the NEAC Tournament.

One of Jennings’ favorite sessions of ENG 112 is the one she teaches during January break to athletes on campus.

“We meet every day for the month,” said Jennings. “The students are focused—they care about their abilities in the pool or on the court as well as in the classroom. They’re not willing to do mediocre work. We share that same kind of attitude.”

However, she won’t be teaching the course in January 2010 because she’ll be downhill skiing in Switzerland. Cross country skiing is another winter sport Jennings enjoys and she goes miles “almost every day if the weather permits” through nearby vineyards, fields, and orchards.  

Jennings shares an affiliation with Keuka—and a similar career path—with her late aunt Lorna Wearing, 1932 Keuka graduate who went on to teach English at a college in St. Petersburg, Fla. Jennings’ grandfather, Dean of Colgate Rochester Divinity School Thomas Wearing, gave the baccalaureate address at Keuka College during Lorna’s senior year.

 Prior to Keuka, Jennings taught at Finger Lakes Community College.

-- Tanya Cornell-Kestler