School of Communication 820 N Michigan | Chicago, Illinois 60611 p (312) 915 - 6548

LUC.edu/SOC

March 24, 2015

Dear School of Education colleagues:

It is a great pleasure to recommend my peer and colleague, Leah Pasquesi, as she completes the

requirements to receive her master’s in education here at Loyola University Chicago. I met Leah in the fall

of 2013 as we embarked upon our graduate education journeys together in this program, and I was

immediately impressed with her experience and thoughtfulness when navigating working with students, all

applied with a practical social justice lens.

Leah has shown a great deal of balance and commitment to further our program and our discipline – not

only does she offer thoughtful and critical reflection on course topics and issues affecting the field, but she

is engaged within the higher education and Loyola communities. Leah serves as the graduate assistant in

the College of Arts and Sciences and has completed an academic internship at the University of Chicago at

The Center for Leadership and Involvement. Beyond her professional responsibilities, Leah serves as co-

chair of the professional development committee of the Higher Education Student Association, and as an

editorial board member and editorial assistant of the new Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher

Education and Student Affairs (JCSHESA). Not only that, but she comes to Loyola with professional

experience working as a college advisor with the Illinois College Advising Corps.

While this list of duties and accomplishments certainly speaks to Leah’s qualifications and

accomplishments, it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to who she is as a person. Having worked

with Leah in various capacities, from coursework to our editorial board membership of JCSHESA, I can

personally attest to her commitment, resiliency, leadership skills, self-awareness, and dedication to our

field.

I can say a thousand good things about Leah both as a professional and as someone who I’ve come to

regard as a friend, and I believe that our program is better for having Leah as a member of this group. But

all of this is only a small glimpse of the educator that Leah is – I’m not one of the hundreds of lucky

students who have worked with Leah throughout the past four years. Leah has nurtured, guided and

mentored students to ask themselves some big questions about their future academic, personal and

professional lives. In fact, students as East Aurora High School named Leah the “Most Influential Staff

Member of the Year” both of the years in which she served as a college advisor there – that

accomplishment alone speaks volumes about Leah.

I consider myself lucky to have learned and worked beside Leah for the past few years. I am thrilled to see

her next steps in this field, both immediately upon graduation and beyond. I am confident that Leah is one

that we will all look to in the future as exactly what is needed in student affairs – providing students with

sound counseling and advising, all while pushing our field to be better.

Kind regards,

Meghan

Meghan Ashbrock

Coordinator, School of Communication

M.Ed Candidate, Higher Education, School of Education

mashbrock@luc.edu | 312.915.6972