My name is Jenna Gross and I am a Criminal Justice major here at ODU. I am originally from a small town in York, Pennsylvania where I grew up on a farm – my dad and uncle are both farmers and run our family business together. I am the 9th generation of the farm and we raise and produce beef cattle. We raise upwards of 1600 cattle at one time and are self-sufficient in the crops that we grow, meaning that everything we harvest goes back into the cattle. We farm over 2,000 acres of crops each year and grow a wide variety of crops: corn, soybeans, barley, wheat, sunflowers, etc. In addition to these crops, we also grow hops (used in beer production) and pumpkins. I have always loved farm work and the sense of community built throughout my time involved in agriculture. Farming takes a lot of physical labor which I have been surrounded by my whole life. I am incredibly grateful for my parents who have worked so hard to instill those values in me and my older sister. My sister and I grew up showing cattle in our local 4-H program, which truly started my love for animals. I showed beef cattle as well as Boer goats for multiple years. In addition to showing animals, I grew up playing many different sports: soccer, basketball, swimming, volleyball, etc. I stuck with basketball for the longest and played until I graduated high school. As you can imagine, I have had many pets over the years, but currently, I have two very large farm dogs – Biscuit and Gravy. Biscuit is a Bernese Mountain dog and Gravy is a yellow lab. When I was 6 years old I got my first pet goat and he lived to be 10 years old. His name was Marvin and he was my best friend – unfortunately, he passed away in 2019.
In terms of my career, my long-term goal would be to join the FBI as a Special Agent. However, there are a lot of steps before I get there and I could see myself finding a job within those steps that I love and wouldn’t want to leave, so for now I am focusing on obtaining my degree in Criminal Justice while gaining as much experience as possible.
