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Tessah Curtis

English Department Visiting Professor Reagan Jackson on Youth Mentorship

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Reagan Jackson dreamed of getting out. As she used to

explain to friends in high school, she wanted to go to the "University of Away." After visiting the

University of Washington on a college trip with her dad, Jackson decided to trade in snowy,

freezing Wisconsin winters for rainy, wet Seattle. Having lived here for almost twenty years, she

has seen how the landscape around her has changed with gentrification and the increase of

Amazon.

Jackson is currently a visiting professor within the Seattle University English

Department, a published author of multiple books and a podcast host. A big part of her time,

however, is spent serving as the Program Director for Young Women Empowered, or Y-WE as

they call it. Y-WE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was started ten years ago by Rose

Edwards, along with a collective of other women, both old and young. Rose spoke to their

students and realized the lack of community or mentorship opportunities for young women in the

school system, and Y-WE was born.

Jackson has been working with youths in some capacity since she was 18, in positions

like teaching or coordinating study abroad programs. She initially found out about Y-WE after

being invited to the annual Career Day. Jackson’s eyes light up as she talks about it. It was one of

the first times working with youths, she explained, “where you were unable to tell what the

majority was.” There were people from all different backgrounds and cultures there sharing with

these young girls. It was there that she realized they were a company she wanted to work with,

and two years later, she was hired.

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Up until recently, Jackson served as one of their program managers, until pointing out

that while all of the other program managers each worked on one program, she worked on six,

leading to her promotion as Program Director. As she explained, all programs include a

“mentorship component with intergenerational diverse women and they include what we call a

community of belonging, so we prioritize figuring out ways to be together through our

differences and how to leverage our differences as strengths.” Her favorite program to work on is

Y-WE Write, which partners with Hedgebrook Writers in residency to teach different genres to

the young women at a week-long sleep-away camp. Jackson explained how these girls come to

the camp with all different levels of writing experience, some none at all. Coming all together,

they can break apart what being a writer truly means. They are able to spend the week building

their skills, and the week camp culminates with a spoken word performance.

Reflecting on her work with Y-WE, she chuckles as discussing how she hopes Oprah will

come to visit the program and that the most rewarding part is "learning what I don't know."

Speaking with the young women she works with or other students she mentors, Jackson has

learned about many of the struggles that exist for them within school systems and how programs

like this can create a change for that.