Name: Jennifer Klosterman-Lando
Hometown: Corona, Queens, NY
Undergrad Major & Institution: BA, English, minor in Secondary Education, St. John’s University, Queens, NY (Go Johnnies!)
Grad Program & Institution:
MA, Student Personnel Administration in Higher Education, New York University
PhD in progress, Higher Education Administration, The Ohio State University
Dissertation topic: Narratives of Latino/a Cultural Brokers in Higher Education
Special Student Populations you work with: I serve as the Honors Director for the college, and work with many of our fabulous EHE Honors students!
Why I chose a career in working with college students: I’m a first generation college student, and I can remember the very first time I set foot on campus at St. John’s. I had a fantastic college experience and wanted to work with students in the same way staff at St. John’s worked with me. College can be the most transformational four years in a person’s life, and I’m honored to be a part of that experience.
What is something you wished you would have done in undergrad?: I wish I would have studied abroad. Study Abroad programs were brand new during my undergraduate career, and I was already too far along to take advantage of it. St. John’s actually now has a campus in Rome!
Hobbies: Spending time with my two children. My daughter has recently begun competitive soccer. I serve in a volunteer position as the Director of Chapter Programs for Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity. Binge watching my favorite TV shows in my Netflix queue. I love football (the Buckeyes, of course, as well as the NY Giants and NY Jets, and I follow the Browns and Bengals), baseball (life long Yankee fan), and college basketball as well as the NBA finals. I also bake and decorate cakes for birthdays and special events.
Fun facts:
I was part of a Guinness Book record – the largest group of tap dancers performing a single routine, in Macy’s Tap-O-Mania, 1988.
Both of my kids were born during March Madness.
I served as a Traveling Educational Consultant in the year between undergrad and grad school.
My great-grandparents emigrated from Italy and Sicily to New York in the early 1900s.
I’ve been at Ohio State since our championship year in 2002 and love being a Buckeye!