Ms. Wuertz is a new addition to the Jesuit marketing and communications department. She manages social media representing Jesuit, the Age magazine, communicates with parents and alumni, and much more for the Jesuit community.

Recently graduated from college in May, Ms. Wuertz jumped right into this position and is eager to begin working at Jesuit.

Having gone to a Jesuit school herself, Ms. Wuertz is well-versed in the Jesuit mission and is familiar with the Jesuit community and school environment.

“Everybody here is so excited and passionate about what they do, and that’s really exciting. So it’s a really great environment,” Wuertz said.

Ms. Wuertz offers an important piece of advice to the Jesuit community that many of her friends and family have told her. She makes sure to remind herself of it often.

“I have so much life ahead of me; so do all of you,” Wuertz said. “Just take your time and just do what feels right at your pace.”

Full Q&A (lightly edited for clarity)

How long have you been in your field?
I graduated from college in May, so not long at all. I did a lot of this sort of stuff in college. I had a few jobs on campus, and I ran the lit mag for my university. A lot of the work was really similar to this. So now it feels like just doing that but on an adult level, which is fun. It’s been a good transition, but I’ve only been here since mid July, so around two months.

Where did you work prior to Jesuit?
Well, I was a barista for a while. In college, I worked for our newspaper, and I was a reporter for a year and then I was the sports editor. Then, I was the opinions editor, so I was doing that for a while. Also, as I mentioned, I was the senior editor for our lit mag, and I was a writing assistant as well. I was an intern for this conference called NUCL, the Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature. I interned for that, did a lot of the marketing and communications for that. So I was doing this sort of work in a bunch of different ways. But, yeah, now I’m here; I took a two month break after I graduated, and jumped right in.

What are your main responsibilities at Jesuit?
One thing that I’m really completely independently in charge of is all the social media. So the main Jesuit Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, although I’m not really posting on LinkedIn that much. So that’s a big part of my job. Beyond that, I work a lot on editing the website, I send out a lot of communications. So it’s a lot of writing, editing, communication submissions and stuff. So all those big emails that come from Jesuit to everyone I’ve probably either made or edited. Some of my jobs are graphic design, so I’m working with Adobe InDesign and doing a variety of things, like development or working with alumni. Right now, we are working on all the alumni weekend marketing stuff, and working on the magazine, the Age. I’ve been editing that a lot. So it’s sort of just whenever somebody really needs something, like if any teachers need me to send something out about this or whatever. Just whatever people need. The Weekly Roundup is another big thing, which I believe goes to parents. But yeah, it’s mostly just whatever people need from me.

What excites you about your work at Jesuit?
It’s fun to be here in a school. I could have gone into a marketing firm or something like that, and that would have been cool, but it’s cool to be around young people and students. Everybody here is so excited and passionate about what they do, and that’s really exciting. So it’s a really great environment. I like the work I do as well, I think it’s fun; it’s been a lot of learning and expanding my skill set but in a really cool, fun way. I like writing a lot and I love editing, so editing the Age is a lot of fun. That’s really what I want to do in the very far future. Also, I have been given a camera and told to take pictures, so that’s been fun. So now I have photography experience, which I didn’t really have before. It’s just been a really great opportunity to get a lot of experience, the people here are amazing, and I believe in Jesuit’s mission, so it’s really cool.

What is something the community should know about you?
I actually went to a Jesuit high school. I’m from Denver, so I went to Regis Jesuit, so I did the whole four year. It reminds me so much of this high school, they are so similar in so many ways. You all do the encounters, we call them Kairos. But it’s pretty much the same thing. And then the grad at graduation, it’s really fun to see all of the similarities. I feel like I don’t feel out of place here which is good. And my mom works at Regis, my brother works at a Jesuit high school in DC, so we’re all deep in the network.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
That’s a big question. I don’t know if this is any specific piece of advice, but I feel like leading up to graduation these past few months, everybody’s been telling me, “You have so much time, don’t rush your life; don’t feel like you have these steps that you have to take.” Because you’re just constantly comparing yourself to other people your age, like, I’m 22. People my age are getting married, there’s people my age having kids, and people going to grad school, stuff like that. People buying houses, how does that even happen? I don’t know, but seeing that happen and being like, oh, am I behind? Am I not doing things right? Which just shouldn’t ever be a mindset, you know? I have so much life ahead of me; so do all of you. Just take your time and just do what feels right at your pace.