Jessica Hunt says the secret to getting good scholarships lies in telling a good story.
It’s no surprise, since the scholarship coordinator for the Honors Program is surrounded by writers every day—and is one herself.
“Basically what we do is develop talent,” she said. “We recruit the best and the brightest. We support them once they come to the university. And we give them lots of opportunities to figure out what they want to do, what kind of work is going to satisfy them or make them happy, what they’re good at, what will have the greatest impact. And part of getting to where they want to be usually involves writing an essay.”
Hunt, herself a former Foundation Fellow at UGA, knows first-hand how trying the process of scholarship and grant applications can be. As a former English teacher and writing instructor, she also understands the agony of editing, critiques and re-writes.
“A lot of our students are writing about themselves, so (writing) has helped me understand their frustration and also their vulnerability. Because when they share their writing, even if it’s just an essay for a medical school application, they are kind of laying themselves bare. And to have somebody come back and say, ‘This isn’t as good as it ought to be,’ that’s hard. And I have critique partners who say the same things to me about my writing,” she said. “Some students are, for instance, biochemistry majors and they don’t think of themselves as writers. But they’re so talented; they’re such great students that I don’t think they like to do things that they’re not good at. So we have to develop that.”
From her office in Moore College, Hunt guides students through top-tier scholarship and graduate school applications, hosts résumé workshops, coordinates Honors program activities and counsels students about what comes next.
“I primarily work with Honors students, but other students make their way here—and we reach out to them,” she said. “We tell the students, when you decide you want to go after that great adventure, come talk to us. The awards are not the important things. The important things are what they want to do with their lives. Once they figure that out, they look around and try to find who can help them, what kind of support is out there.”
For Hunt, writing is everywhere. She graduated from UGA with an English degree in 1984. Since then, she’s taught writing at institutions in Atlanta, Scotland, Maryland and Athens. Her husband, Chris Starrs, is a freelance journalist. In addition, her co-workers write.
“We’re an office of writers,” she said. “It’ really exciting for us to work with students on their writing and to push them, to make them go back again and again to the draft and make it say what they want to say.”
Besides writing for her job at the university, Hunt also is the author of a yet-to-be-published fantasy series.
“When I’m not doing this, I’m writing commercial novels, genre fiction. I’ve written two novels and I’ve got the plot for the next one. It’s great fun,” she said. “It’s very exciting for me to be pursuing something creative because, really, that’s what a lot of these students are doing when they’re writing about themselves. It’s helped me understand their frustration. It’s been good for me to put myself through that same process and better understand where they’re coming from.”