America East will highlight one of its student-athletes each month for the length of the school year. “Shining Stars, Star Students” documents the life of some of the conference’s star athletes beyond just their athletic achievements. In the second installment, the spotlight is on UNH's Jessica Compton, written by Eric Coplin of the New Hampshire sports information office.

 

A bunch of classes, a lot of reading, trips to the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA), volleyball practice and a couple of games, stops at the library, a tutor session here or there, dropping in on the Diversity Support Coalition, numerous e-mail checks, meetings, workouts, events, hanging out with friends and watching TV thrown in if there is time. Don’t forget eating, sleeping and showering. Oh, and coffee. That’s a necessity.

The typical week of Jessica Compton looks like a full plate for even the normal college student. When you throw in the fact she is a Division I athlete, however, that week looks a lot more like a couple of trips to the buffet line.

Compton, who is double majoring in economics and political science and also has a minor in women’s studies, is a senior middle blocker and tri-captain on the University of New Hampshire women’s volleyball team. That is not her only identity though. She is also a multi-racial woman from outside of Chicago. A strong woman at that; one who is wise well beyond her years.

“The sum of what a person is cannot be summarized by ?athlete’ or ?woman’ or ?middle-class.’ As a quote by Spelman goes, ?All women might be women, but no woman is only a woman.’ Therefore, me being a woman athlete describes two separate parts of who I am; I am a woman and I am an athlete. Yet, they are both essential in the development of each other.”

Compton’s mother is “a little Italian-Polish lady,” while her father is African American and part Lakota Indian. She embraces it all and has become involved in the community partly to give back, partly to educate and partly because she needs something on which to lean.

“When I first came out here, there was almost a little bit of culture shock,” Compton said. “I’ve grown a lot out here ? it’s a predominantly white campus. Part of the reason I’ve reached out to the community is because I need that support.”

She also wants to let people know that “you can’t be just one thing.”

Compton says she gets “the looks” a lot when her mother comes to visit, because the majority of people in this area don’t understand that you can be more than one race and have multiple identities. She says people in Chicago “just get it because they are more exposed to differences.”

“People’s perceptions are that I’m black when they first see me,” Compton said. “It’s the drop rule. One drop of black and you’re black. There is no definition of black. It makes no sense.”

You can see and hear Compton’s passion as she speaks, which is why she has become involved in so many things on campus.

“What student-athlete isn’t busy?” you might ask. But it’s not just the fact that she chooses to bite off as much as she can possibly chew outside of her sport and the classroom, it is that she picks good causes, things that are extremely important to her, and excels at them all. Like a multi-sport athlete, Compton dominates everything she does.

Her head coach, Jill Hirschinger, has witnessed that domination up close for four years.

"Jessica has really worked hard in the classroom and on the court,” Hirschinger said. “She has been blessed with some talent, but her excellence is attributed to her perseverance and determination. She is not a person to sit back and do nothing, but a person who is involved and has made a difference."

Made a difference she has. On top of what Compton does throughout the week, she has also been a participant and a student coordinator for the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Summit, an annual gathering that has a different theme each year, such as community or democracy. The participants discuss how to frame leadership around that theme and go over how to deal with differences and how they see themselves as compared to how society views them. In addition, she will be doing a spoken word piece at this year’s MLK Annual Address.

Compton was also a part of this year’s anti-hate campaign on campus in which she and another culturally-diverse student took part in a documentary about who they were on a predominantly white campus. Don’t ask her how it came out, however, she says she can’t watch herself. The same goes for when she is watching game film. She only watches her teammates to be able to prepare for their next match.

Compton is also the only undergraduate student on the President’s Commission on the Status of Students of Color, which is made up of 10 to 15 faculty and staff members. Compton was nominated to be on the commission by Sean McGhee, the director of OMSA.

“Jessica Compton has worked to bring awareness to the issues of inclusion, equity and social justice within our UNH Community,” McGhee said. “She has worked visibly and effectively with her peers to address inclusion and equity issues that delve into racial dynamics, sexual orientation dynamics, gender and socio-economic class, and the positive power of building knowledgeable, action-oriented communities. As a student-athlete Ms. Compton has also passionately bridged the gap between athletics and the university community as a whole, opening up doors of opportunity for students and staff to connect and learn from each other. Ms. Compton is always ready to come out of her comfort zones and to dedicate time and energy to engage our community in ways that are beneficial to it's growth.”

Compton clearly is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in, which is why she found herself backing her peers last spring in a small protest in the Granite State Room of the Memorial Union Building on campus.

When one of the conservative groups on campus staged a “Republican Coming out Day” to mock gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBQT) students by telling their stories of when they came out as a Republican, even using a makeshift closet in the act, Compton was there to support her friends. When the conservative group wouldn’t allow the LGBTQ students on stage to share their stories, and began to clean up without acknowledging them, Compton tapped the head of the conservative group on the shoulder and demanded answers. When a photographer snapped the shot and that photo, along with a headline that read, “LGBTQ AND CONSERVATIVES GO HEAD TO HEAD” appeared on the front page of the next issue of The New Hampshire, the student newspaper, Compton may have become the face of diversity at UNH.

“It’s one thing to believe something and have opinions,” Compton said. “It’s another to take shots at people for living the way they want to live.”

The way Compton has chosen to live is 100 miles per hour all the time. On top of it all, she mentors other students and athletes in economics and political science, and coaches in the Seacoast Juniors Volleyball program, a local youth volleyball club that allows high school girls to play during their off-season.

Compton didn’t come to UNH expecting to be involved as much as she has been. In fact, she says it “just kind of happened.” Now, however, she takes pride in being involved in something more than athletics, and thinks that it all has made her athletic experience that much more valuable. Compton says people that would never set foot inside the Field House have come to watch her play.

Now that she is involved, Compton realizes she is privileged and that is part of why she feels the need to give back. “Not everyone gets to be a Division I athlete,” she said. Another part is her sense of responsibility.

“You have an entire institution wanting you to learn,” Compton said. “You can’t just sit on the couch and watch TV. UNH is dedicated to listening to you, and it would be a total waste of time if you weren’t involved.”

Doesn’t sound like a college senior, does she? Hopefully you’re starting to realize Compton is not your typical student-athlete.

Dr. Marla Brettschneider knows Compton is anything but typical. Brettschneider is the coordinator of women's studies, an associate professor of women's studies and political science, and one of Compton’s academic advisors and needs only one word to describe her: Amazing.

“Jessica is an incredible example of the best of a student-athlete,” Brettschneider said. “She is smart, engaged, and committed. What is also incredible about her ? that I think being a serious athlete must help with ? is that she also can acknowledge boundaries and handle the responsibility of the fine line between pushing herself and respecting a limit. She is a fun and engaged citizen who inspires her teachers and fellow students. That would be more than enough, but the level of maturity she brings with her capacity to be responsible is amazing.”

So how does Compton balance everything she has going on? That is just it, she says ? balance. She is here first as a student-athlete, so her curriculum and team comes first. If she needs to drop a meeting she will, but she tries to find time to fit everything in.

“I love the other stuff I do,” Compton said. “But I love volleyball. It’s great to come here everyday and do something you love ? and it helps when we’re having a great season.”

By all means, Compton and the Wildcats are having a great season. She leads the team in blocks, is second in hitting percentage, fifth in kills, and has been a key player in getting the 18-8 ?Cats back to the America East tournament for the first time since 2003 ? the year before she arrived on campus. That means Compton, along with her fellow seniors, has had to help navigate a team that has no postseason experience, to the postseason.

“Jessica leads by example and has work habits that are second to none,” Hirschinger said. “She is a tremendous role model for her teammates.”

“I don’t realize that I work hard,” the humble Compton said. “It just comes naturally.”

It may come naturally, but it doesn’t just happen. On top of balancing everything, Compton also has to be disciplined in using her time. She says an hour of time is big for her. She can write a paper, read, tutor and catch up with friends.

Compton’s day planner is an even bigger tool in balancing her time. “If I don’t write it, I don’t remember it,” she said. Getting a full eight hours of sleep, which she does every night, is her big key to success. Finding time to nap and relax also helps, though she says neither happen very often. She does admit that watching Grey’s Anatomy each week is her one guilty pleasure.

Well, maybe not her only guilty pleasure. Compton loves coffee and can usually be found at the local coffee shop, Breaking New Grounds, hanging out with friends when she has time. She downs two to three cups per day on average, with her absolute favorite being Toffee Nut with soy milk and sugar. Compton can’t make it through the day without coffee. “I will plummet by one o’clock,” she said.

In addition to everything else Compton has going on, she is also a great student. She owns a 3.25 GPA, but she isn’t happy with it. She said her freshman year got her into trouble, but she regrouped and has been averaging over a 3.5 each semester since. She is planning on staying next fall to re-take two business classes that brought her GPA down, and take some 700-level advanced courses. She wants to bump her GPA up over a 3.5, which is the minimum requirement to be accepted into the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she would like to someday attend.

Between graduate school, research plans and coaching, Compton is not worried about what she will do after graduation, like some senior athletes are.

“I don't worry about my life after volleyball because I have found other avenues to channel my passions, ideas, leadership, and learning,” Compton said. “Volleyball has meant so much to my development as a member of a greater community; we have a culture that the program is always greater than the individual. I am not afraid to continue the process of living and learning even though it means without volleyball. Though volleyball was essential for me to overcome and understand that fear.”

Whatever she decides, Compton will continue to make the world a better place each day ? one cup of Toffee Nut coffee at a time.