Long before Jennifer Hunt entered high school, she knew what she wanted to do for a living.
“When we were doing some career development and exploration, I always liked numbers and math and I thought, accounting sounds like the perfect role for me,” said Jennifer, who toured Pickaway-Ross with her eighth-grade class.
“I pretty much made up my mind right then that this is the path I was going to do and set myself up accordingly in high school.”
Then Jennifer Boyer, the Westfall student studied Accounting & Computing, taught by Dennis Rine. Rine, who retired in 1999, saw excellence in Jennifer and predicted that she would compete in the national BPA competition.
“I remember when I was a junior, he came up to me and said, ‘You're taking me to nationals next year.’ And I said no.” But in her senior year, “I placed first in the region for payroll accounting, got fifth in the state and then made it to nationals because some of the other people did not follow through or weren’t able to go.”
While she didn’t place at nationals, she valued the experience of competing in Orlando, Fla., and the opportunities she had at the career center, such as working in the Treasurer's Office on job placement her senior year.
“I'm a firm believer that Pickaway-Ross has really set me up for my career in my life because of the knowledge you gain there. Even taking the accounting part of it out, (I learned) how a business runs and the business side of the workforce. And then, of course, learning skills like typing really set me up for being in the office.”
After graduating high school in 1997, she took classes at Ohio University for a short time and got married.
“What really kicked off my career was about 20 years ago I landed a job as an accounting assistant for a machine shop in Grove City. I worked there when they were a smaller company, probably about 25 employees. And then as that company started to grow, I took on more administration duties, which included payroll and what would be considered HR for a 25-to-30-person company.”
As the company grew into a 60-person company, Jennifer said, she moved into the human resources job full time.
“I found a passion for HR.”
In 2019, she brought that passion to Converse Electric as the Grove City company’s HR manager, where she works with the controller and accounts manager, and does payroll.
“It's very helpful, even from the HR standpoint, to still have that numbers knowledge.”
Over the years, Jennifer has continued her education, earning industry certifications and, in 2021, completing her bachelor’s degree in human resources management.
That same year, she was named Converse Electric’s Employee of the Year, an award for which she was nominated by her colleagues.
“She did so much in one year,” said Chris Converse, president of the family-owned company. “But it's primarily (the fact that she was) demonstrating our values: choosing to become better; being dependable; showing clear results. She had lots of examples that kind of lived up to (our values).”
After being there a year, Chris asked Jennifer to create an in-house apprenticeship program.
“She is the administrator for that program and that has had a huge impact,” Chris said.
In addition, she also was certified to be an instructor, teaching communication and employability.
“Working with the apprentice program is probably my favorite part of my job,” Jennifer said.