Jazlyn Urrutia
Staff Writer
Before Jenny Moore became a clinical professor of communication and the director of student media at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, she always had a passion for storytelling.
She said she was drawn to telling stories from her childhood community in Maine, where people often struggled socially and economically.
“I wanted to bring those stories to the surface,” Moore said. “I felt like there were a lot of people who were working very hard to raise their families who…didn’t have time to tell their stories.”
Moore said she is very close to her parents, and her late father played a major role in shaping her career path.
He was an architect before returning to school and eventually became an architecture professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for 20 years.
“My teaching is very much related to my dad’s career trajectory,” Moore said. “I was very inspired by his dual career as well. He spent a lot of time in professional practice, then went back to school and became a professor.”
Just like her father passed on his knowledge of a field he knew, Moore followed in his footsteps to do the same.
Writing her Path
Moore graduated with a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.
She also developed a broad professional background across communication fields like public relations, marketing, corporate communications, digital media, photography and production.
“I think that’s what allowed me to direct these different types of media initiatives,” Moore said, “because I’ve had a breadth of experience, not just in journalism, but experienced different opportunities that students can also explore.”
She said one of her early professional roles left a lasting impact. During her two years at the nonprofit college prep program Good Samaritan Community Services, Moore taught impoverished youth in San Antonio and helped them prepare for and get into college.
Moore describes it as a transformational role that helped her better understand the community and the importance of education.
“It’s kind of where I cut my teeth as a teacher,” she said. “Where I grappled with big questions that everyone grapples with in their mid-20s. What do I want to do? Where do I want to put my energy?”
After that experience, Moore considered what level of students she wanted to teach. She initially applied for a position with the Alamo Colleges, but when no openings were available, a professor there, Marianne Odom, directed her to an opportunity at A&M-San Antonio.
At the time, Moore said she was unsure if she was qualified, noting that most professors have a Ph.D. However, she ultimately saw A&M-San Antonio as a perfect fit because of her 10 years of professional experience in the communication fields.
“What the university needed at that time was strong teachers, but also program builders,” Moore said. “I had that skill set. It was a great match. I knew a lot about curriculum design, and I knew the students in San Antonio.”
Creating the Den
Moore joined A&M-San Antonio in 2009 as a communication lecturer.
William Bush, a professor of history and honors program director, has known Moore since fall 2009. He said he saw the university in its early stages of being built, when enrollment was around 800 students across all majors. The communication program was at risk of being shut down due to the low enrollment.
Bush said Moore quickly began discussing ideas to create a student media program.
“She articulated a vision for a digital student media program at a time when such programs did not exist in San Antonio,” Bush said. “She envisioned it as a hands-on, student-led program that would be tailored to the needs, interests and goals of our first-generation student community.”
In 2010, Moore launched Jaguar Student Media with The Mesquite, the university’s student-run online newspaper.
Bush said she started with no facilities or budget. “It was basically two large rooms filled wall-to-wall with piles of old furniture and trash,” he said.
However, Bush said Moore and her colleagues, along with the communication students, transformed the space into a thriving media lab.
Six years later, El Espejo, the university’s magazine, was launched by Moore and Donna Pazdera, a clinical associate professor.
“These projects really started in the classroom,” Moore said. “From there, we realized our students are incredibly talented and that we needed to work with student life to create these recognized student organizations so that outside of class, the students could work on their portfolios.”
Moore believed the newspaper and magazine were sufficient for the university’s size at the time.
Over time, students continued proposing new media outlets, and Moore supported their development.
“It was energizing,” Moore said. “It was exciting to have that level of creativity and to have the support from the college to keep creating and following the students’ energy level.”
Within the next seven years, Moore launched three more student media outlets.
- 2022 – Enlace Media Lab with Professor Diego Aparicio
- 2024 – Jaguar Radio with co-faculty adviser Associate Professor Brian Brantley
- 2024 – Jaguar Sports Network with student leaders
The program gained recognition from other media outlets such as KENS5 and WOAI, which began reaching out to Jaguar Student Media for interns. That exposure helped begin an internship program.
“The number of graduates who are now working in professional media is too many to count,” Bush said. “Some real notable names at the San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio Report, Texas Public Radio and many others.”
Moore said there are about 30 students currently participating in internships while earning course credit.
She also added that Jaguar Student Media is not limited to communication majors, but is open to all students.
“The organizations become more interesting and more self-sustaining the more different disciplines that get involved,” Moore said. “You have students who have knowledge in different content areas and are learning from one another.”
New Beginnings
After 17 years at A&M-San Antonio, Moore is stepping into a new role as a faculty mentor in the Center for Teaching at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Her last day at A&M-San Antonio is May 4.
Moore said she has continued to work on her professional development, including receiving several teaching fellowships and earning a coaching certification. She said she has now matured enough in her career to move on to teach faculty.
Her desire is to still reach students through her new role by teaching other professors.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for me professionally because my entire job will be about helping other professors become the best professors, they can be,” she said.
She said she is increasingly concerned about the challenges facing higher education, including faculty burnout and student engagement.
Moore believes that other professors need support and mentorship from more experienced colleagues. She highlights her own experiences with mentors in her career and wants to pay it forward to help others.
“The more years that went by for me in the classroom, it finally dawned on me that I had something to share,” Moore said. “And that I could be helpful to other faculty.”
Moore said she has long learned from observing colleagues, often sitting in on classes.
“Everybody has their own teaching styles,” Moore said. “Everybody has their own strengths. But there are some really incredibly talented faculty at our university.”
She specifically pointed to Professor Edward Westermann in the department of history, philosophy, and geography as an early influence.
“He taught me how to have strong relationships with students,” Moore said. “How to be relational, but completely focused on the content…how to be an incredibly engaging instructor.”
Moore said her goal has always been to build meaningful relationships with students and understand their academic path.
Her new role will expand that focus beyond communication students or faculty, but to all professors whom she will help through workshops, consultations and a new faculty academy.
“It forces me to be a student for life,” Moore said. “I am going to have to learn so much about teaching and different disciplines. I’m really excited about that.”
