If you have ever bought food from Late Night Gillies, you have more than likely heard a voice shout, “Hi everybody!” When you look back to match the voice with the face, a small woman hustles by, carrying on with her duties and conversing with anyone in her path. Announcing with eagerness, “I cut more sub rolls!” or “I’m refilling the brownies!” you know her as Tammy Jennings. Despite the short seven months she has worked in Dining Services, Late Night Supervisor Tammy Jennings has made an impact on every single person she encounters. She makes certain all people feel seen.
“I’ve never had a bad day here so far…I’ve been frustrated because I’m still learning but, it’s really the students that make me feel like I have a purpose,” she says, unknowing of how much she makes others feel as if they have a purpose. “I love the coworkers that I work with, not just the faculty coworkers, but I love working with the kids.” She goes on to say, “back in April, I could have just closed my eyes and I wouldn’t have cared. You guys woke me up.” Tammy admits that this may have been her first time saying that aloud.
Sitting on a chair in her workplace, through the roar of students laughing and chatting, Tammy shares through tears, “I was a very broken person before I came to Gordon College.” Despite the many hardships she has endured, her daughter Morgan inspires her to keep going. When asked what challenges she faced during her time as a student, Tammy said, “Believe it or not…I was very shy and modest, I didn’t talk.” And ‘believe it or not’ is the correct phrase, as Tammy Jennings consistently reaches out to people with words of encouragement. She is considerate, abundantly caring, and intentional. However, Tammy reminds that she “…had to really build [herself].” “I never had the confidence to talk to people the way I am talking to you now,” she stated.
This small woman with a large capacity in her heart goes on by saying, “shortly after I graduated from high school, I [started to] turn to food.” She was told by doctors that if she kept “going the way she was going” she would lose her life. She was 350 pounds at the time. “I didn’t have the confidence to go on to college, I didn’t have the confidence to go into the military…I didn’t really know what I could do,” Tammy said. She realized that she needed to become someone new, determined to live healthily. Tammy began meeting with a bodybuilder and lost the heaviness— not only physically, but mentally. She went to college at 37 for a degree in human services. It takes considerable power and grit for that kind of change, but when you’d ask Tammy about power, she’d tell you about previously working alongside people with disabilities. She says, “they became my power, and they would build me up.”
However, in transition from that previous life to her current role in Dining Services “Gordon College built me up, just coming to work every day” she shared. “I don’t know how I blossomed from [starting as] the shyest student,” she said, “honestly, I thought when I first started that I was going to hibernate in a kitchen, and I didn’t think anyone was going to see me.” With excitement, she exclaimed that not even a month into her working on campus, the girls’ basketball team surprised her outside of the kitchen singing her “Happy Birthday” and gifting her an “honorary player” jersey. “That was in October! I didn’t even know anybody knew it was my birthday!”
When asked about her message to students, Tammy shared, “education is the most important. Make the best of your time here at Gordon College…don’t give up and don’t ever be afraid to have a voice and ask questions if you don’t know the answer.” When looking at this joy-filled, hardworking woman, one would never guess she was anyone but who she is today. “For the first time, I have a last name at a job,” she said as she uncovered her name tag pinned on her uniform, “I am Tammy Jennings from Gordon College.”
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