About Me

My name is Jillian Chard and I am currently a senior at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. I am looking forward to graduating this spring and starting a new chapter in my life.

I was born and raised in a town in central Illinois called Springfield. Springfield is a vastly growing city with a huge historic background all surrounding around Abraham Lincoln, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Vachel Lindsay.

Even though I don’t necessarily see myself always living in Springfield, I do really love where I am from. I have a wonderful mother and father, and an older sister, Lauren, as well. My family has blessed me with a very happy life.

I have also been very lucky to have many of the same friends for the past 17 years of my life. It is hard being away from people that I would basically consider my second family, but I have made amazing friends at SIUE as well.

While I always imagined myself working in the medical field, I decided to take a leap of faith and change my major from Speech Pathology to Speech Communication my junior year of college. I am now a PR major with a minor in Psychology. Even though I changed my major, my number one goal is to still help those who are in need. I am hoping that I will be able to attend graduate school next fall and will be able to take the steps possible for me to achieve my dreams.

Over the past couple of years at SIUE, I have joined many organizations on campus. I have been a part of Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority where I held many positions such as Etiquette Chair and I was also a part of the Greek Life Advisory Committee.

I am also a member of PRSSA and Sigma Alpha Pi, a leadership society on campus. I am hoping that with being a part of many organizations, I will be taught many tools to help me as I get older and start my career.