Amy Jennings graduated from Regis in 2008, with a major in Neuroscience and a double-minor in Spanish and Music. Her studies and work at Regis played a formative role in the adventurous life she would lead after graduation.
After graduating, Amy completed a year of Jesuit Volunteer Corps, an organization which allows volunteers to "serve the poor directly, working towards structural change in the United States, and accompanying people in developing countries" (jesuitvolunteers.org). Amy spent her year of JVC in Yakima, Washington, where she worked at a community health clinic and helped to manage the women’s emergency homeless shelter.
“I also did a lot of adventuring throughout the Pacific Northwest which included some great mountain climbing,” she tells us. The Pacific Northwest, known for its rainy climate, lush national forests, and spectacular mountain ranges, provided Amy plenty of outdoor adventures.
After that, Amy moved to Omaha, Nebraska and started working on her doctorate in Occupational Therapy at Creighton University. She married “an amazing man from Washington State who also loves having one adventure after another.” They are pictured here on one of their adventures, climbing Mount Saint Helens in southern Washington, a 10,000-foot volcano that is one of the most active volcanoes in the US.
Amy's Occupational Therapy doctorate program gave her the opportunity to practice in Ecuador, where she worked with La Fundacion Hermano Miguel--a foundation that serves adults and children with disabilities. About her experience, she says, "I was able to work hands on with Ecuadorian therapists from an educational model to share with them knowledge of neurological diagnoses and rehabilitation. My husband worked in their orthotic and prosthetic lab. We were able to live with an amazing Ecuadorian family and travel the beautiful Andean country."
In December 2012, she graduated with her doctorate degree and now works at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center in Wenatchee, Washington as a Doctor of Occupational Therapy on the neurorehabilitation team.