Jennifer Gardner, executive director of the Center for Student Excellence at Northern Kentucky University has received the NKU 2024 Alumni Award of Faculty/Staff Strongest Influence. This award honors staff or faculty members whose counsel, advice and teaching has created a lasting, powerful impact on NKU as well as on the lives of NKU students and alumni. 

“I was so blown away,” Gardner recalled when she first found out she had won the alumni award. “I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing! I felt so very overwhelmed.” 

Teaching “has always been about the students for me. I want to impact them,” Gardner said. “That was always my focus.” Gardner said she strives to make sure students are connected, get the right experiences, are involved in the right communities and meet the right people. 

Gardner said she sees aspects of both of her parents in herself. Her mother was a stay-at-home mother who sacrificed her career to stay home with her kids and her father, Jim McNally, was an NFL coach for nearly 40 years, leading four teams to the Super Bowl, who taught her to work hard.

Gardner came to NKU in 2012 as the director of the Sports Business and Event Management Program. She described that role as being the connective piece between the sports industry and the business world. She transferred out of that position this year to become program director of the Center for Student Excellence. 

Gardner’s teaching started out with a bang as she was hired in July 2012 and started teaching in August. As a first-time professor, Gardner said she felt overwhelmed. “How do I even pick out a textbook?” Gardner had asked herself. That first semester, Gardner utilized many guest speakers out of necessity but now continues to do so out of a passion for community connection. “I love teaching. I love interaction and I’m very big on client projects,” Gardner said. Client projects have been a strong focus for Gardner as she says: “the textbook isn’t going to teach you how to put on an event,” but hands-on experience will. 

Since then, Gardner has led students working on projects such as DAV 5K, an autism awareness 5K race, and a group tickets revenue project with the Cincinnati Reds, along with many other events. Gardner currently has students working with Center for Economic Education and The Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project and a Friendraiser with the Kenton County Libraries. 

Gardner has found that many times students view the initial meeting with contacts to be one of the hardest parts of networking, therefore Gardner’s question when working with students is always, “Who can I connect them with?” 

Gardner has become a key player in growing Business Week into what it is today by bringing speakers and funding to the event. 

“She is so willing to help her students any way that she can and help them advance themselves professionally, ” said Olivia Craddock, an NKU alumni and former student of Gardner’s. Craddock is now an Account Executive for FC Cincinnati’s Season Ticket Service. “I don’t think [the award] could have gone to a more deserving person.” 

Craddock presented the award to Gardner at the Alumni Awards Dinner and Celebration on Feb. 3.

Craddock sees Gardner create influence by “establishing a true connection with [her] students, being someone that they can truly look up to and admire and know that they have somebody in their corner to help them.”

“Jenny is probably the best mentor that I could have asked for, and her influence in my sports career encouraged me to want to continue in sports even in times when it didn’t seem like it was going to be an easy path,” Craddock said. 

Gardner’s philosophy has become, “we’ll work it out.” Gardner says she understands that everyone has a different path and that life happens, and she wants her students to understand that they “can be honest with me because I’m honest with them.” “I am here to be a cheerleader for them,” Gardner said. “I always put students as a priority before anything…I try my best to listen, be kind, honest and care about what students are going through.” 

“I’m all about, let’s create an environment of good learning where everybody feels like they know each other,” Gardner said. This has taken place as some of her students have become friends and in some cases ended up being in each other’s weddings, she noted. 

Gardner advises students to take risks and step out of their comfort zones, even if that means taking baby steps. “You don’t have to do the full step, you can do baby steps to get out of your comfort zone,” she said. “Don’t try to conquer the world in a day.”

Leaving a legacy “doesn’t have to be bells and whistles and accolades and fireworks,” Gardner said. Joe Cobbs, department chair and professor for Sports Business and Event Management on the topic of Gardner winning the award, said, “I was so excited to see that she had won because it really fits the enthusiasm that she has for our students.”  

“It was such a good, good recognition because so much of her energy that she puts into her role is focused on what our students need for a successful career,” Cobbs said.

“I think she does a terrific job of recognizing students’ potential and interests sometimes before they even recognize it,” Cobbs said.  “She doesn’t shy away from a challenge…she doesn’t look at the obstacles, she looks at how we can make this happen.” 

Nicolette Meade, assistant director of the Center for Student Excellence talked about how the award validated what Gardner was already doing. “She knows how to really develop authentic relationships with students and to show them where they shine, and she does that in a down to earth, humble way that’s very relatable, and I think students feel so comfortable with her that I think it makes it so much easier for them to come out of their shells and see their own awesomeness,” Meade said.  

Lexi Lona, a current student of Gardner’s and a senior dual major in human resource management and management, said, “I have never had somebody be so supportive from the second I walked into a classroom.” 

“She wants to make sure that [students] know that they are supported,” and that she is there to help them. “She doesn’t see herself as above you. She sees herself as somebody who can help guide you in the right way. It’s kind of like a big sister vibe,” Lona said.