Jenny Ruenes began teaching when she was in middle school and became a founding member of Neighborhood Notes, a program that brought music and arts education to underserved communities in Philadelphia. Teaching students of all ages and abilities, she quickly realized that understanding the mechanisms of comprehension, both individual and collective, is a prerequisite to any meaningful learning. Throughout her own middle and high school experience, Jenny had a natural affinity for teaching others, especially thriving in one-on-one settings, often informally tutoring her friends between classes.
As an undergraduate, Jenny Ruenes attended Boston University on a full academic scholarship, where she studied Education and History. While there, she was invited to tutor at the university writing center, specializing in academic writing and tutoring English Language Learners. Able to extract underlying thought processes through directed questions, she helped her peers realize their own potential in writing. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2014 and remained in Boston where she was drawn to the burgeoning farm-to-table restaurant industry.
Jenny quickly became one of the youngest managers at a major restaurant in Boston, as she treated management as an educational relationship. With an education background, Jenny defined a successful manager as one who could anticipate their employee’s needs, bolster their strengths, and develop their skills, positioning them to succeed. In this way, she created a dynamic and positive staff, which resulted in happy customers.
Jenny Ruenes recently moved to New York City to pursue a Master of Science in Sustainability Management at Columbia University to help tackle the sustainability issues that threaten our world. There, she specializes in regenerative agriculture, sustainable development, and circular economies. She intends to use her expertise to make the restaurant industry more sustainable and resilient, closer identifying with the agricultural system that intrinsically defines it.
Jenny has recent experience with the GREs, testing in the 96th percentile for Verbal Reasoning and 99th percentile in Analytical Writing during her own graduate application process. She teaches the reading and writing sections on the GRE and the SAT, as well as academic writing, environmental science, sustainability, and humanities. With a restaurant background, Jenny also consults on restaurant management and leads youth cooking classes.
In her free time, Jenny seeks adventure, whether it means hiking the Rocky Mountains, taking cross-country road trips, or cooking something totally new. She loves reading and just formed a new book club with her brother, where they cook a dinner related to the book and discuss their reflections. Jenny has run numerous half marathons in under two hours but prefers casual runs with friends over tracking run times.