Rebel McKinley, friend

When I met Jen, she lived just down the hall from me in the TD Annex at Yale, where I landed as a transfer student. This was the outskirts of the outskirts of campus, and I was feeling pretty alone in those first days. It is not surprising that Jen’s would be one of the first and friendliest faces I would encounter. We became friends easily, and as Mark has said, truly inevitably, because Jen was an irresistible force of kindness and regard for all. Then, as now, she was full of passions and was finding ways to make an impact, whether through Outward Bound or contributing her thinking in American Studies classes, leading the charge alongside Mark to support dining hall workers at Yale or preparing for her teaching journey to begin through Teach for America. She put as much of herself into her babysitting commitments as she did to her classes, and that was all of her - pure passion and integrity always.

I cannot fathom that Jen is not out there being Jen. The magnitude of this loss - it is unthinkable. It is no surprise to see through the many tributes that Jen has left a tremendous legacy - transforming students and learning and the lives of all of us who know and love her. Jen always provided a space for me that was free of judgment, and she welcomed me as easily and as completely to her friendship as she welcomed her students to the warm gift of her classroom.

A ritual I have come to love from my school life is the "bead ceremony.” We form a circle and select a representative bead, together building a necklace to say goodbye. Jen's bead has always been bright yellow - pure sunshine. To me, Jen is equally an explosion of light and the patch of sun you find on a day when you really need it. Her passion was awe inspiring, and yet her approachability made it feel safe and good to climb on board.

Of all Jen's passions and incandescence, she was most joyful in her marriage with Mark and as mother to Ethan. She longed to be a mother, and her love for Ethan is in everything she is. I am so sorry this beautiful family did not get nearly enough time with Jen. There would never have been enough; this tragic and unexpected loss of her, too soon, feels impossible to comprehend. I am thankful Jen welcomed me to her world, and it does give comfort that Jen's world remains so strongly still spinning by virtue of everyone whose lives have been made richer and better and more because of Jen.