Staff profile: Jesse Jackson, Academic Support Assistant

Jesse Jackson’s drive to help people and to surround himself with creative minds made accepting a position as academic support assistant in Florida State University’s English department an easy decision.

He was hired in November 2023, and the office environment has been a very pleasant surprise.

“My coworkers are all polite, resourceful, and supportive,” Jackson says.

He enjoys his role, specifically as a schedule builder, which gives Jackson the opportunity to work with faculty members and teaching assistants to place them in their preferred classrooms for a more comfortable teaching environment.

“Granted, I haven’t spent time in other colleges around campus, but I would be surprised to find a better advising team, support staff and administration than we have at FSU English,” he says. “I consider it a blessing to work with such an encouraging, intelligent, and diverse crew of professionals.”

Jackson brings varied experiences of interacting with people to his current job with FSU. He is a Tallahassee local—he attended Chiles High School—but after graduation Jackson was excited to live in a different setting. His favorite part of leaving home for college, he says, was the “independence and the ability to explore a new city freely,” which pushed him to make a big move.

For his undergraduate studies, he chose Orlando and the University of Central Florida, where his social life would flourish and, at the same time, he would get a great education. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in interpersonal and organizational communication in 2012.

While there, Jackson was a LEAD Scholar, a UCF academic leadership development program for first-time-in-college students.

“By the grace of God, I was chosen to be in the program as a freshman and invited to live in the LEAD Scholars dorm for our first year enrolled,” Jackson adds. “LEAD was great for leadership development and paired well with the degree I chose to pursue.”

In addition to other collegiate activities, Jackson joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity in the fall of his sophomore year at UCF, and he recalls with fondness being on the organization’s New Member education board.

“There is nowhere as important as where you are right now,” Jackson says. “I am thankful for all of the experiences and memories I was able to have while in Orlando.”

When he graduated from UCF, Jackson moved back to Tallahassee and immediately found work at FSU in the president’s office as a personal assistant to then-President Eric Barron. He worked with former FSU Provost Garnett Stokes to coordinate events for Barron and maintain the president’s personal calendar.

We spend roughly one-third of our lifetimes in our workplaces, and I like to contribute to it being a good time, and not a bad time whenever possible. We all need a morale boost sometimes.

— Jesse Jackson

“Work at the president’s office was a great job for being fresh out of college,” Jackson says. “Definitely different than my current role, but still an important role to be in. I have fond memories of working there and I recall taking many trips to The Foundation to drop off or pickup important documents.”

Jackson left the president’s office after about 10 months to work for the Florida Senate as a legislative aide, exploring his interest in state government, an activity that started for him in high school. Each legislative session when he was a student at Chiles, Jackson left for a week to participate in the Florida Senate Page Program, which offers hands-on experience with and insights to Florida’s legislative process.

“After experiencing the senate from that point of view, I had always wanted to work there,” says Jackson, who also was involved with Chiles’ student government association and the school’s Model United Nations Program. “I always felt like a natural born leader and being able to contribute to my community in an impactful way influenced my decision to be involved directly.”

In fact, Jackson’s original major at UCF was political science with a focus on prelaw. After considering his true ambitions after college, however, Jackson took a break from that path and focused on broader avenues, a concentration on discovering diverse ways he could positively influence others.

As part of his personality, Jackson enjoys talking with people and making them feel like someone is listening to their stories. For example, Jackson once was a driver for Uber and he enjoyed talking with his passengers about life, especially what was happening in theirs.

In five years on the job, Jackson says he completed more than 10,000 Uber trips while maintaining a 4.98 rating. He enjoyed driving in Destin, Florida, during summer months, and he once drove someone from Tallahassee to Atlanta to catch a flight.

If he had a passenger he had met before, Jackson says he was always willing to put in extra effort to make them feel comfortable.

“It doesn’t cost anything to be nice to someone,” Jackson says. “You never know when someone may be having a bad day, devoid of support, and just need someone to talk to for a bit. I find that you learn the most by being an active listener, and asking the right questions to unlock original responses, and making a positive impact along the way. I love being me and being able to provide support to other, especially those I work with.

“We spend roughly one-third of our lifetimes in our workplaces, and I like to contribute to it being a good time, and not a bad time whenever possible. We all need a morale boost sometimes.”

Now as the English department’s academic support assistant, Jackson excels at helping manage course schedules, assisting with student enrollment, and scheduling some classes for large auditoriums. He also manages access to students' textbooks, making sure they’re prepared for the semester to come.

Recently Jackson has also taken on the role of travel delegate, handling expense requests for student, faculty, and guests, traveling primarily for research and conferences. When he is not working, Jackson maintains a healthy lifestyle. He enjoys exercising at the gym, achieving new personal best goals, all so he can enjoy a better quality of life, and relaxing after in the swimming pool.

“I grew up an athlete playing tackle football for seven years, and I value keeping my body in decent shape,” Jackson says.

He also enjoys going on outdoor adventures with his partner in crime: Bo is a one-and-a-half-year-old German Shepherd-Labrador mix that Jackson adopted. Jackson also rescued Paris, an older Chihuahua-Terrier mix; he proclaims her as his princess. The newest edition to the fam is his cat, Sadie.

Jackson has plans to work at FSU for years to come, with the potential of furthering his education. His father and one of his younger sisters graduated from FSU with doctorates.

Jackson is confident in his own ability to succeed that far in school as well, and in his future, he sees a juris doctor degree or trying his hand at politics.

“I am built to handle those missions and many others,” he says.

English-Editing, Writing, and Media major LeeAnn Tucker interviewed Jesse and contributed to the writing of this article.

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