Silver City, NM – Jessica Morales, the Assistant Dean of Student Life, as always been at WNMU, even for her college years. She was born and raised in Silver City and graduated from Silver High. During her time at Silver High, she was part of the dance team, history club, choir, peer education, honors society, fellowship of Christian athletes, and was also the manager for the men’s basketball team. After high school, she was planning to go to UNM, but when her grandparents got sick, she decided to stay home and go to the local university.
Morales said that she had a strong grasp of who she was, at least as much as any 17-year-old who had just graduated high school could have. She knew she had a purpose but wasn’t sure what it was. As every undergraduate student does, she searched for her purpose through college. During her undergrad, Jessica was going to study social work. After a semester, she realized that she wanted to study secondary education. During this time, she was working part-time as secretary for special events for WNMU. As her college years went on, Jessica said she really enjoyed classes. She had a great support system and mentioned that if she could go to school for a living, she would.
For her masters, Jessica decided to study counseling and academic leadership. For 7 years, she worked at Silver High as the dance coach. When she got a job in Student Affairs, that’s when she found her calling. As of July of 2017, she’s been the Assistant Dean of Student Life and loves working to create events for students around campus.
WNMU student Lucy-Mae Denton, who has worked closely with Jessica in Student Life for many years, spoke of her admiration for the Morales.
“I have worked for Jessica for about four years,” Lucy-Mae said. “During this time she has showed not only me, but everyone she comes across compassion, kindness, and support. Looking up to her as one of my biggest role models she has taught me a lot in the ways of being a great leader and is just a generally amazing person. Jessica has helped me build myself in many ways including giving me opportunities to learn how to be a leader. I will take everything I learned form her to hopefully someday be as great of a leader and role model as she is.”
