The Meet Your PALs Series introduces you to UNH Manchester's Peer Assistant Leaders (PALs), who help first-year students adjust to campus life. This week's PAL is Jasmine Huffman '19, a psychology major with a minor in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies.
What do you like best about being a PAL?
I love being able connect with so many new students and being able to help them navigate the complexities of their first semester. I also love the opportunity I have to help educate them on important topics like emotional intelligence.
What advice do you have for new students?
I would encourage all new students to follow their passion and to go into each and everything they do with an open mind. It’s okay to have expectations, but just be open to the idea that things might be different than you expect or that they might change. And if they do, let them. It’s important to not fight that change but to grow with it.
What brought you to UNH Manchester?
I originally came to UNH Manchester so that I could begin my education and take my time deciding on what school I really wanted to go to. But I fell in love with the college my first year, and I discovered that it was the school I really wanted to go to.
Favorite UNH Manchester memory?
In my second English class, after my professor had described the first assignment, she stated that we could collaborate with someone. Directly after, this girl that I had only spoken to maybe twice turned around and looked at me and immediately we knew we were working together. Writing those papers turned out to be way more fun than it should have, and that girl turned out to become one of my best friends.
What’s your favorite class and why?
I would have to say that my favorite class was Introduction to Psychology with Professor Nicholas Mian. This was the first class I had ever taken where I felt a real passion for the subject, and genuinely enjoyed going to classes. And right after I completed the course, I changed my major to psychology.
What do you hope to be doing in 10 years?
I hope to be serving as a psychology professor at a university, teaching psychology courses and conducting research of my own.
Tell us your favorite:
- Manchester restaurant: Bertucci’s
- New Hampshire destination: Steel Hill Resort in Sanbornton, NH
- Vacation destination: Orlando, Florida. I mean, you put Disney World, Epcot and Universal Studios now with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter all in one city. What more could a girl ask for?
- Movie: The Breakfast Club
- Book: The Outsiders
As a child, what did you wish to become when you grew up?
When I was really young, I dreamed of becoming a princess, but who can blame me? It’s in my name.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
“I can travel anywhere, except Cuba, and I will travel to New Zealand and walk the Lord of the Rings trail to Mordor and I will hike Mount Doom.” - Dwight Schrute, The Office
We’d be surprised to know that...
I was an apprentice on a professional Tap company
If you could try anything and not fail, what dream would you attempt?
If I could try anything, I would go back in time to when I was 11, have my Hogwarts letter mailed to me and go to Hogwarts… But if that didn’t work out, I would go back in time and be cast as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.
If you could go on a road trip with anyone (from past or present), who would you choose and where would you go?
I would love to go on a road trip to Hollywood with Ellen DeGeneres.
