KCH Alum Receives AHS Young Alumni Award
KCH E-News October 2021
Dr. Jennifer Jacobs
Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and a 2009 graduate of KCH, received the 2021 College of Applied Health Sciences Young Alumni Award in ceremonies on October 8. She is the inaugural recipient of the award, which recognizes early professional success, leadership, and community engagement.
Through her research, Dr. Jacobs seeks to identify how sport can best be used as a tool to develop positive outcomes for marginalized youth. She grew up in Rogers Park in Chicago, the city’s most socioeconomically diverse neighborhood. She saw firsthand the benefits of diversity and the impact of poverty. “My exposure to people from such different backgrounds early on was absolutely a privilege that led to me doing social justice-related work,” she said.
She built a strong foundation for that work, she added, during her undergraduate studies in KCH. Working with older adults in Dr. Edward McAuley’s Exercise Psychology Lab, she learned that the field of sport psychology wasn’t just about developing top athletes, but also helping people of all ages and abilities to grow and reach their full potential through physical activity. She went on to complete a master’s degree in kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in educational psychology at Northern Illinois University.
“A student in the College of Applied Health Sciences is given a transformative gift, the opportunity to see a future that makes an impact,” Dr. Jacobs said in accepting her award. “In the early days, this impact for me was transferring my classroom knowledge to local spaces. These days, I harness that knowledge to fulfill AHS’s mission of building healthier communities and making life more inclusive.”
Dr. Jacobs serves as the associate director of the NIU College of Education’s Physical Activity and Life Skills Group, which promotes healthy development of children and youth while teaching life skills through physical activity in schools and community organizations. She created and supervises Project Fitness Leadership Experience (Project FLEX), a sport leadership and college exposure program for incarcerated youth, and Girls Boxing Body Empowerment Club, a middle school sport-based program that promotes gender equity and physical activity. She directs Belizeans Advocating for Equity, an international sport for development and social change program sponsored by the Belize National Sports Council. Dr. Jacobs also founded and developed the curriculum for Camp Play-A-Lot, a Chicago-based program focused on youth development and social/emotional learning that ran from 2010 to 2020.
Dr. Jacobs has been a consultant on curriculum and program development and evaluation for a number of organizations, including McHenry County Community College, the Chicago Fire Foundation, and Beyond the Ball. In 2020, she received the Exceptional Contributions to Diversity and Social Justice Award from the NIU College of Education and the Outstanding Honors Capstone Mentor Award from the NIU Honors Program.