Celebrating Jen Fiero’s Impact at Jackson College
Jen Fiero is Jackson College’s Coordinator of Library Student Engagement. She was awarded Michigan Librarian of the Year from the Michigan Academic Library Association.
“I was honestly really astonished,” she said. “I know how many amazing librarians there are in the state of Michigan. So, for them to choose me to be recognized was really humbling and very gratifying as well because I put my heart and soul into everything that I do.”
Her journey to becoming a librarian started after college. Jen didn’t know what she wanted to do but thought about working in museums due to her love of history. She ended up working in supply chain management for a while, but it wasn’t until a couple of her friends who had finished their degrees in library science recommended that same path to her.
“I never thought about that as a career. I got into library school, and I started looking at the different things you do as a librarian,” she said. “It’s not just reading books; it’s not just checking them in and out all day. It’s a lot of education, finding information and getting to shape what books the library has and helping with that sort of thing.”
Which led her to Jackson College which was somewhat of a family affair as both her parents completed associate degrees. Jen has been at the institution since 2013 originally as a library associate. Today in her role she wears a lot of hats on a day-to-day basis stemming from making sure having books ordered for different subject areas, working on displays, building a video tutorial, helping a student narrow down a topic for a research paper or guiding them in the library to figure out citations among other tasks.
“There’s a lot of different things you get to do and that’s the best thing about working here,” Fiero said. “I get to do a lot of things that really engage my brain. My big goal is to help students and understanding what they’re going through. That gets my wheels turning. How can the library help support that?”
Education has always been important to Jen. She was the first person in her family to get a four-year college degree and to go on to a master’s degree. Now, that has carried over to her profession.
“I’ve loved learning things and being able to help students that want a better life,” she said. “You get to see so many different students here. You see everyone from the recent graduate to the 60-year-old who is looking for a second or third career, or the mom with kids who is trying hard to get back into the workforce so that she can help provide a better future for her children. Being able to have that impact on students is so huge to me and that is one of the biggest things I love about higher education.”
Jen, a 2004 graduate from Western High School in Parma, Michigan, received her undergraduate degree from Grand Valley State University and her Master of Library and Information Science degree from Wayne State University. She was also a 2014 contest on “Jeopardy!” in a three-episode run.
“Now I get to be known for being on “Jeopardy!” and being librarian of the year so I get two fun facts to share with people,” she said.