"The Student Experience" showcases University of Iowa students who excel academically—inside and outside the classroom. This is our first entry in the series; look for the next story on Nov. 17.

When Jenna Ladd first came to the University of Iowa, she kept seeing signs for the Pick One! campaign, a program created by the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership to get students engaged by joining a campus organization.

“I’m a rule follower, and I thought that if I didn’t pick one, there would be consequences, so I thought, I better pick one,” Ladd says.

Ladd sent the then-leader of the University of Iowa Environmental Coalition what amounted to a cover letter, saying, “I’m really interested in belonging to this organization; I can be useful in these ways…”

Ladd says the organizer wrote back: “Sure, we’re going to have pizza on Thursday, you should come by.”

Though she is still teased about her initial formality, that one email changed the course of her college experience, where Ladd takes what she has learned in the classroom and applies it to community settings, from school gardening initiatives to sustainable practices that can help others.

“My experience at Iowa has definitely surprised me,” Ladd says.

A sociology major and Spanish minor from Council Bluffs, Ladd will graduate early this year while maintaining her status as a Dean’s List Scholar.

“Jenna Ladd is a mature, well-prepared student who has used all this university has to offer,” says David Osterberg, associate clinical professor of environmental policy, founder of the Iowa Policy Project, and one of Ladd’s mentors. “What really sets her apart is how she has incorporated service outside the university into her learning.”

For Ladd, who plans to study urban and regional planning in graduate school, it all comes back to people.

Ladd studied abroad in Spain, and is using her language skills to write an investigative story on how refugees and immigrants to Iowa use community gardens. She organized a sustainable holiday gift-wrapping event to raise money for Habitat for Humanity to weatherize a home in Cedar Rapids.

She wrote a research paper for the Iowa Policy Project demonstrating that school gardens increased students’ access to fresh produce, as well as their excitement and pride about growing their own food. Those factors add up to more children eating fruits and vegetables. Ladd also does her part to bring local food to the community as an employee at the Iowa City Farmers Market.

“Showing a sense of environmental stewardship and promoting sustainability on campus and in the world is the best way that we can help others,” Ladd says.

In her work mentoring first-year students as a college transition leader, Ladd tries to extend that compassion firsthand. It was, after all, three-and-a-half short years ago that she was in their shoes, wondering if she would get lost in a sea of students, and if she would find something to care about.

“The thing I try to emphasize the most to them is: nothing in college is as scary as it seems like it is when you’re a freshman or when you first get here,” Ladd says.

Getting started, she says, is as simple as showing up to a Thursday night meeting.

Video by Matt Jansen; text by Brittany Borghi