“I didn’t realize how much Geneva was preparing me,” says Jennifer Flinn ’00, MA ’02, PhD as she reflects on her work as a psychology professor at Frostburg University in Maryland. “I knew people genuinely cared about me and knew who I was [at Geneva]. I’ve tried to recreate that here.” As a Christian in a social science field at a public institution, Jennifer experiences a unique ministry opportunity as she seeks to cultivate a community of professors invested in the lives of their students.
Though Jennifer seriously considered a different undergraduate school, she was impressed with her experience of welcome and warmth when she first visited Geneva. She remembers being greeted by genuine smiles and says, “I just felt like Geneva was my place. I really felt I was exactly where I needed to be.” In high school, Jennifer developed an interest in psychology, which led her to pursue an undergraduate degree in psychology and a master’s in counseling. However, Jennifer encountered a crisis near the end of her master’s studies as she recognized her love of learning and research and reconsidered her interest in a counseling career.
As God would have it, a substitute teaching opportunity opened at Geneva just after Jennifer graduated, and she agreed to take on a lifespan development class. Throughout the subsequent academic year, Jennifer discovered a love of teaching, as well as insight into her future career. Just as she had looked forward to her high school psychology class, she eagerly anticipated the days she taught the Geneva class as her love of lifespan development psychology and relationally connecting with students blossomed.
In 2007, Jennifer received a doctorate in psychology at West Virginia University, with a specialization in lifespan development. Jennifer’s academic focus in gerontology — a psychological exploration of aging — made her a perfect candidate to become a professor at Frostburg University, where she has now taught undergraduate and graduate students for 18 years. Jennifer’s unique journey to teaching has inspired her to work with her department’s career development classes as well as courses specifically related to her field of study. She desires to give her students opportunities to determine what they really love doing, so she brings in guests who speak about their work in psychology and encourages her students to utilize Frostburg’s career center, sometimes even designing assignments that require them to visit and learn about potential careers.
Jennifer describes the versatile nature of a psychology degree. For example, her students this year have found internships at an inpatient psychiatric facility, the police department, and a veteran center. Her mantra for her students is “You don’t have to do just one thing with your psychology degree, but you do need to figure out what your thing is.” Through her career development classes, Jennifer hopes to help students do just that.
Though many people associate psychology purely with a career as a counselor, her own experience has revealed the variety of paths possible through a psychology degree. However, she has no regrets about her master’s in counseling, saying, “I have used more counseling skills as a professor than I ever thought I would.” Many of Jennifer’s students are first generation college students, so they cannot seek practical guidance from most family members. Jennifer acknowledges her relatively sheltered experience at Geneva, but believes this actually prepared her well for teaching at Frostburg because it provided her with a level of guardrails and a support system to understand the challenges of growing up. Geneva gave Jennifer a vision of thriving community and relationship, and she has sought to recreate that vision at Frostburg. She hopes her students leave college knowing that she cares about them, a goal reflected in her mission to “not merely teach her students but guide them.” Jennifer’s Christian faith invites her to extend kindness to all her students while remaining firm on her own beliefs. Ultimately, she believes that respect and understanding open the door to meaningful conversation.
Though Jennifer primarily focuses on teaching, her love of learning and passion for good relationships is evident in her many research project ideas. She loves considering the varied experiences of older individuals and prefers to focus on positive questions that explore how people can age well. She also hopes to study the reality of grandparents raising their grandchildren, a family unit common in our society. Other research interests include everyday problem solving, the psychological differences between men and women, emerging adulthood, and cultural counseling competencies.
Jennifer’s passion for people is further revealed in her delight in hearing about the upcoming Dwight E. Wagner Welcome Center at Geneva. She fondly recalls her mother wondering about the location of a front door during her college visit many years ago, and her father co-chaired the Beyond the Bend project that resulted in the moving of Route 18 away from the center of campus. Jennifer took great joy in the completion of the archway at Geneva’s entrance, claiming that it gave her a tangible vision of the welcoming feeling she experienced at Geneva. She is excited for the Wagner Welcome Center’s role as a needed extension of that tangible vision.
By Sarabeth Sangrey ’25
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