Position:  Assistant Director of Career Services
Length of Service: Since 2001
Residence: Colonia

An inspiration: Each week Larry Jacobs meets with dozens of students in a determined effort to help them find and reach their career goals, along the way evaluating their resumes, providing interviewing techniques and, ultimately, inspiring them to lead diversified lives. Having accrued an extensive resume himself of various professional, community, and volunteer activities, Jacobs tries to impart to his students that “participating in life, in a lot of different things, makes you a stronger person filled with more confidence.” He also strongly encourages students to overcome life’s obstacles, just as has had to often do. Though he has been hearing impaired since birth, Jacobs has never let this discourage him, and he inspires students to take control in their own lives.

Handi-capable: Jacobs overcomes a 90 percent hearing loss by using a variety of aids, including a hearing aid, lip reading, a vibrating beeper for phone messages, and the appropriately named Buddy, a 10-year-old mixed beagle and golden Labrador retriever. Known as the Career Services Ambassador, Buddy accompanies Jacobs most everywhere and serves as his additional set of ears. Buddy was trained for six months by Canine Hearing Companions in Vineland and alerts Jacobs to sounds he doesn’t hear, such as a fire alarm, the doorbell, his name being called, or an emergency vehicle’s siren. Jacobs isn’t one to give up easily. “A funny thing happened,” he said. “When you’re working so hard, the momentum carries you above and beyond.” And at some point, he said, “my disability became a blessing, an asset.”  Jacobs is upfront about his hearing impairment, which helps put others at ease, and Buddy, he said, provides a warm, supportive environment at Career Services.

Passion for outreach: Jacobs doesn’t wait for students to come to him for career advice; he spends a great deal of time away from his desk educating Rutgers students and staff about Career Services and self-advocacy. He created Dare 2 Dream, an inspirational, interactive program aimed at providing encouraging career advice. Since developing Dare 2 Dream in 1998, Jacobs has presented the program to more than 60,000 people at schools, conferences, companies, and organizations. Through Dare 2 Dream, Jacobs met a terrific staff and the director of the New Jersey Department of Special Education, who asked him to be a keynote speaker at yearly conferences for middle and high school students with disabilities. “I really enjoy working with people and providing them with techniques to survive and succeed,” Jacobs said.

Diversified Volunteering: In addition to his outreach programs, Jacobs has coordinated job fairs, served on several board committees of major firms, and facilitated support groups for battered and abused women, to name a few of his volunteer efforts. In 1995, he founded the largest playground in New Jersey, Kidstreet Park in Bridgewater. After noticing many aging, run-down playgrounds in Bridgewater, Jacobs initiated a campaign, asked the mayor for a donation of land, recruited more than 2,000 volunteers and an architectural firm, and helped raise $135,000 to build the new playground. A year later, Jacobs was selected by United Way and Coca-Cola to carry the U.S. Olympic Torch for a mile in Bridgewater for the summer of 1996 Olympic Games.

Sidelights: In his spare time, he spends time with his four teens; wife, Laura; and three dogs. He also enjoys the outdoors, following Rutgers sports teams, and country music, particularly country dancing with his wife. Jacobs also teaches psychology and education courses weekly at Rutgers, Montclair State Graduate School and at Middlesex College.

Special thanks: Jacobs would like to thank his immediate supervisor Chrystal McArthur, Career Services Director Richard White, and his colleagues. “They have been proactive and incredibly supportive in making my outreach initiatives happen, and they’ve inspired me.”