Sandler brings ‘enthusiasm and intellect’ to mentorship in Dr. Kachur’s First-Year Seminar Horror Fiction and Film
By Kim Williams
Jenny Sandler is a peer mentor who claims she enjoys her position because of her desire to rid underclassmen of the idea that “the big kids want to shove younger kids in lockers.”
Her mentees’ quick praise shows that they appreciate her guidance. Mentee Kristin Behrle describes her as “organized, friendly and always willing to talk and help [her mentees] out in any way.”
Fellow mentee Becka Neville feels that Sandler could save her mentees in a fire and “then she’d buy ice cream after to make [them] feel better.”
Her mentees are not the only ones to express their fondness. The professor of the class for which Sandler is the peer mentor, Horror in Fiction and Film, shares their admiration. Dr. Robert Kachur asserts that “she is second to none in her enthusiasm and her intellect.”
He speaks highly of Sandler in response to any question, describing her as “responsible, cheerful, and positive.” His actions speak louder than his words: Kachur has already asked her to be his peer mentor next year, which she has already happily accepted.
Sandler’s involvement in peer mentoring is characteristic of her.
She has always been heavily involved. In high school in Stevensville, Maryland she was a peer mentor, the yearbook editor, the secretary of her school’s chapter of National Honor Society and she ran track.
At McDaniel she is a peer mentor, a member of the Honors program, a participant in last year’s Vagina Monologues, a singer in the choir and an uninitiated sorority sister (to be initiated in November) of Phi Mu.
She has lived in Daniel MacLea since freshman year in Honors housing but says that she plans to live on the Phi Mu floor next year. Sandler admits, “I’m so excited I danced.”
Her involvement in campus clubs is not the only thing that makes her stand out.
Sandler is a rare species in college: the student who “doesn’t mind early morning classes.” She is a junior with an English major, a minor in French and a possible minor in communications. She refers to herself as a “big purist about Jane Austen” and her favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice.
As far as weather goes, Sandler is definitely a fan of snow. Snow is “my favorite thing in the whole world,” she says. Sandler also admits that she was always “the kid who wears her pajamas inside out and does a snow dance.”
Her talents include an ability to pick up things with her toes, which she acknowledges is not a talent that will “further humanity,” and a skill at dance moves such as the Running Man and the Soulja Boy. Sandler admits that her guilty
pleasure is watching Hugh Hefner and his blonde girlfriends on “Girls Next Door.”
She drives a Volvo named Lucy and she likes to play the piano in Little Baker and make scrapbooks.
All of these talents have made Sandler a number of friends. Throughout the interview the threat of being interrupted by people who know her was always imminent. As a group approached Sandler laughingly warned that we “may be harassed by the people coming in.” From sorority sisters to suite mates, it seems that every face is a friendly face.
Sandler’s popularity amongst her peers and her professors is easy to understand. Sporting glasses and the occasional pigtails, overloaded with books and eager to help, she is certainly someone worth the effort to get to know.
As Kachur says, “She’s the best.”