It’s 6:30 in the morning, and Jennifer Carrier’s alarm just went off.
After almost 19 hours of classes, studying and work, the University senior CLA student hits the pillow at 1 a.m.
“I think the busier I am, the more organized I am so the more I take on,” Carrier said.
“I’ve always liked my classes and my jobs. It hasn’t ever been anything I haven’t wanted to do, so it’s easier to find time,” she added.
The political science and sociology student’s busy schedule helped land her on Glamour magazine’s list of ten women who could change the world.
Between waitressing at Acme Comedy Club and her administrative duties at the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners Office, Carrier works 40 hours per week.
She was a finalist for the Truman Scholarship and just applied for the Rhodes. She is applying for law school at several prestigious schools. She has a 3.86 grade point average.
In her spare time, Carrier enjoys watching movies and taking road trips with her Alpha Phi sorority sisters.
After interning with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and working at the University’s Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners law clinic program for the past three years, Carrier spent five weeks interning with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
“I’ve always been interested in social justice issues. Maybe it was from moving and meeting a wide variety of people and living in a wide variety of places,” Carrier said.
In the White House, Carrier often saw former President Clinton as she went about her interning in the Office of Legislative Affairs.
“It got to the point where he’d say hi and … where there would be looks of recognition, like if you see someone you know but you don’t know their name,” Carrier said. “I was around enough where he began to recognize me.”
Clinton is one person on a list of people Carrier names as influential. Also on the list are Daschle, her late grandfather, her parents and her older sister Stephanie, who attends William Mitchell College of Law.
Sarah Bly, Carrier’s roommate, said Carrier is a motivator and is always there for her.
“I see myself as motivated and generally really happy, and I love meeting people. I think I’m free-spirited because I’m always doing random things, but I’m also very level-headed,” Carrier said.
“Being free-spirited, I’ve been able to do lots of things that some people may not try,” Carrier said.
So she decided to enter the Glamour contest. Carrier was drawn to the $1,000 scholarship and trip to New York City. And she said she thought it would “be fun to go and get your picture in the magazine.”
Carrier applied for the scholarship, sending a personal statement, list of activities, a photo and letter of recommendation.
“I sent in letters from, like, four different people, which could have helped,” she said.
Carrier kept her application a secret, even after she had been told she was a top 20 finalist.
“I didn’t really want to tell anyone because I didn’t want everyone to keep asking me about it if I didn’t get it,” she said.
Carrier spent three days in New York City for the photo shoot, where she met three of the other finalists. She will leave for New York City this Thursday, unless the recent tragedy forces the magazine to postpone the award.
Carrier said she believes it is also an honor for the University that she has been chosen.
“I don’t think the ‘U’ gets recognized as much as being a great university as I think it is. Some of the other girls were from Berkeley and Yale, and to have the University with those schools I think says a lot,” she said.
“And I definitely wouldn’t be a top 10 college woman anywhere else,” Carrier said, “I think the U’s been the perfect place for me. I think they won the award just as much as I did.”
The magazine hit newsstands Tuesday.
Anne Preller covers student life and
encourages comments at
[email protected]
