Thumbnail Jenni Eickelberg

You may notice a theme in this speech that it ties to Rotary members.  Jenni was born in Appleton.  Amazing parents and amazing childhood.  Jenni attended school through the AASD.  Schools she attended were Jefferson, Wilson and Appleton West.  A little known fact: Frank Rippl was her elementary music teacher and Lee Allinger was her science teacher in 6^th grade.  After high school Jenni attended the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point where she majored in Biology and minored in Chemistry.  Her intentions were to enter in to veterinary medicine.  Jenni also has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from UW Oshkosh where Sridhar was her professor for International Business Class, one of her favorite classes!  Jenni met her husband, Jeff, at UWSP and has been married for 16 years. They have 2 children together.  Joren, 9 and Edison, 6.  Some of her hobbies include reading.  She has been a member of a women’s book club for close to 20 years.  Jenni also mentioned running as one of her newest hobbies and she will be running her first 5K in just a few weeks.  Something that most people won’t know about Jenni is that she is a closet nerd.  She loves science fiction, gaming and board and card games.  She actually owns over 100 games, probably close to 200.  Jenni is very involved in our community.  She is on the board of Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley, newVoices (another tie to Rotary with Mary Schmidt and Amy Flanders) and the Outagamie County Housing Authority.  She is also on many committees and teams such as United Way Impact Area, INCLUDE, Race for a Reason, Human Race and a wish granter for Make A Wish.  Jenni has worked at Thrivent for 14 years and 9 ½ have been in Community Relations.  Her responsibilities include Grant making, Oversight of volunteer program and Generosity programs, building relationships in community and looking for ways that Thrivent can help in the Fox Cities.  Jenni loves her job and her company because she gets to incorporate her passion and love for her community.  Jenni is very excited to join Rotary as it aligns with her personal values and she glad to be a member.